Exemplars Of Faith: Abel & Enoch

Hebrews 11 and the Call to Faith

If you take your Bibles, please, and turn with me to the book of Hebrews, chapter 11. We return to our study of the book of Hebrews, chapter 11. And as we look once again at the chapter on faith, let us ask the Lord to bless our time.

Indeed, our gracious Heavenly Father, we beseech you that now you would join with us by your Spirit, that we might understand your Word, that this time would be profitable, be profitable for us as your servants, that we might be encouraged in Christ, and Lord, that you would be glorified in all that takes place during this hour.

We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Well, I must admit, I almost feel like introducing myself. Hello, my name is James White. It's been a long time. I, you know, some of you have changed a lot since I saw you last.

It does seem that way. Pastor Fry did make an ominous comment a couple of weeks ago about meeting another elder. I'm not really sure what that means, but we have been traveling a good bit, and I will confess, very profitably, very thankful for the opportunities of this past week in Dublin, Ireland, and the debates that took place there.

If you haven't had a chance to watch those debates, I'd encourage you to do so, especially the very interesting interactions with the Muslim students. I just love when Muslims put their hand up and say, I don't understand, why did Jesus say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

I had three minutes the first night and two minutes the second night. I managed an entire sermon in three minutes. It's really, it's a real, real privilege to be able to do that, and this may have opened up a real opportunity later in the year for me to become a platinum frequent flyer.

Yes, it looks like preparations are underway for a series of debates in South Africa. So that will be something, something amazing. So I still got Berlin to go this year and then South Africa. So I may need to reintroduce myself to you all again in the future, but wonderful opportunities.

I hope when I'm doing these things that you all see me as your ambassador, as part of the ministry of this local fellowship, that I have those kinds of opportunities as well. And in talking with those folks, I just once again was encouraged by the fact that I could look at them honestly, and I could say, you know, when we gather as a people of God in the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, we take his words seriously.

We challenge ourselves. We work through difficult passages. We don't leave these issues aside. There are many Muslims who are going, I just don't encounter Christians who know this much about the Bible.

Well, we try. We really do try to make sure that we honestly deal with the word of God. And in doing that, we have been working through for quite some time the book of Hebrews. And we've come to the 11th chapter.

You may recall that we have already worked through the first three verses. And now we're going to be moving into the specific examples that the author gives us of faith. Before we read the text, I'd like to start off with a little bit of a word of warning, a word of admonition in the sense that it seems that especially amongst reformed folks, there is a tendency, especially amongst young folks that are just getting into a recognition of the great truths, the reformed faith and things like that.

Reading Hebrews 11 in Context, Not as a Systematic Theology Proof Text

I will very frequently have folks maybe come into our chat channel, call the dividing line, come up to me after speaking someplace literally around the world anymore and say, you know, I've been wondering about this one passage.

And they'll read a passage and they'll say, do you think that has something to do with this? And they'll raise some issue about maybe the nature of saving faith or the ordo salutis or something along these lines.

And I can appreciate their zeal and their desire to know. But there's very often I simply have to go, no, it has nothing to do with that at all. It's it has a context. It has a direct application. And you might be able to make an application over here, over there.

But you can't be looking for a discussion of every aspect of systematic theology in every text of Scripture. It's just not necessarily there. And we have to listen carefully to what the author is intending.

And I think that's very important here, because as we look at the different kinds of of individuals presented to us, we have Abel and we have Enoch and we have Noah and we have Abraham and we have all these different folks presented to us.

They all lived in different contexts. And we have to allow the the author himself to define for us what aspect of faith it is that he is recommending to us. And sometimes we can ask questions that I think the author would have gone, that's not what I was talking about.

I encounter that a lot. I'll have people come up to me and they'll have one of my books and they'll say, did you mean to apply this here? And I just go, man, I'm a really bad writer. They would even think that I was even contemplating something like that at that point.

So we just need to be very careful, I think, as we look at this. And I think when we get a little bit farther in the chapter, you'll see why that will become very important. Let's look at the first section here of Hebrews chapter 11.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it, the men of old gained approval. By faith, you understand, the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous. God testifying about his gifts and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.

By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death. And he was not found because God took him up. For he obtained the witness that before his being taken up, he was pleasing to God. And without faith, it is impossible to please him.

For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is rewarder of those who seek him. By faith, Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence, prepared an ark for the salvation of his household by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise.

And as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fell aware of the same promise. For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith, even Sarah herself received ability to conceive even beyond the proper time of life since she considered him faithful who had promised.

Therefore, there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. Amen. So here we have the first set of examples given to us going up to the time of Abraham.

Abel, Cain, and the Righteous Sacrifice

And we work through, as I said, verse 3. And so we pick up this morning with Abel and Cain. By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts.

And through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. Now, the question, of course, that comes up to the exegete of these texts and handling them is how much time do we spend retelling all of the stories?

Sometimes we will need to reread each of these texts. And very often we could chase references, these individuals, throughout the entirety of the canon of Scripture. But again, I think it's probably best to focus primarily upon the application that is being made by the writer himself.

We have the statement that Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain. Now, we all remember the story. It's as far back into the history of the human race as we can go, just about. Now, we know that amazingly, not in a situation where there was great examples of evil, but in a time that you would almost consider to be pristine.

I mean, neither Cain nor Abel had ever seen a violent movie. They had never played a violent video game. They had never even heard stories of violence in the sense that it was going to have an experience in their life.

For those who think that mankind is a tabula rasa, a clear slate, each person as he's born is just a clean slate, and if we just wrote on it the right things, if we just had the right examples, all would be well.

There is an incredible naivete amongst many in our world today. They don't understand the depth of the depravity of the heart of man. I could make great application to our governmental system and to the directions that it's going, but I will forego that for the moment.

The fact is that the biblical testimony is that we all fell in Adam, and it didn't take decade after decade and century after century and millennium after millennium for someone like a Hitler to come along.

There have been people like Hitler going all the way back. History records some of them, some of them doesn't. But that level of depravity and loathing for the very gifts of God in human life isn't anything new.

And we can go back to these brothers. We can go back. Their parents had walked with God, had heard His voice. This was in the very recent past. And yet in the midst of all of this, we have murder within a family.

It's one thing when someone murders someone that they maybe don't know or someone in a big city and there's crime all around or someone who's on cocaine or methamphetamines. It's like, oh, we excuse all of that.

We understand all that. This is within the family. And what was the motivation? Well, there's been a lot of discussion about that over the years. There's been a lot of question about what did Cain do wrong?

You remember, they both brought an offering to the Lord. And Abel brought an animal sacrifice. And Cain, well, he told the lamb. He was a farmer. And he brought of the produce of the lamb. And a lot of folks have gone, well, you see, there's the problem.

He brought the wrong sacrifice. He should have sold some of the produce and purchased something from Abel to bring a blood sacrifice. Well, we don't know a lot about exactly what they knew at this point in time.

They knew enough to bring God a sacrifice. But I really wonder if that was the problem. I mean, there are places in God's law where you are to bring of the fruit of the land and it's pleasing to God. And there were wave offerings and heave offerings and all these types of things.

And so, I don't think that that was the issue. Because it seems to be the attitude of the heart of the person making the offering. That's what it seems to me. It seems that, and this comes out, I think we sometimes have it backwards, that we see Cain.

He's rebuked by God. He's jealous of Abel. And this is what brings out the murderous actions in him. If God just hadn't rebuked him, everything would have been fine. Right? I think that's a naive view of things.

I don't think that Cain and Abel had this wonderful, close, honest and pure and wholesome relationship up until this one day. And then there's this instant change. Cain just totally changes his perspective on things.

No. I don't think that the Word really gives us that understanding. Because there's some descriptions. We know, remember that brief little statement in Matthew 23. When Jesus is literally discussing the canon of Scripture.

From Genesis to 2 Chronicles. That was all the Old Testament. The prophets were in between there. And he was talking about the blood of Abel the righteous to Zechariah, the son of Barakai was killed between the altar.

He refers to Abel as the righteous. Abel the righteous. Well, if Cain was not a man of faith. And he had a brother who was a man of faith. And hence was righteous. You think that might have caused some disruptions in the family?

Does that not cause disruptions in the family even to this day? Jesus describes him as the righteous one. And I believe that Abel's sacrifice was accepted for a simple reason. That Abel was righteous.

Remember, we read through the Proverbs. And in the 15th chapter, the 8th verse, we read these words. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. But the prayer of the upright is his delight.

The sacrifice of the wicked. How many times have we been hearing in Jeremiah, in working through Old Testament books, God rebuking the people for going through the motions, but not having their hearts change.

And so I think what we have here, especially in light of 1 John 3 .12, which says Cain's deeds were evil, but Abel's were righteous. There was a fundamental difference in regards to the brothers themselves.

And so what we have is Abel offering a sacrifice by faith. And Cain, there's no faith. There's no righteousness. Notice the relationship between faith and righteousness. See, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous.

There is a connection between the two. The one informs the other. A righteous man acts in faith. And this has always been the way that it is. And so God testified about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.

Abel's Faith Still Speaks to the Persecuted

Now, a lot of people have looked at that, and you need to realize it's very, very interesting. I mean, this is something I think that is important for us to grasp hold of here. This is a very short, brief story in Genesis.

We're about to read another one, where we will go back and read the Genesis account, about Enoch, even shorter. And when you have short, brief stories in the canonical scriptures, what happens over time is people that go, you know, I'd like to fill in the blanks here.

And so, you get other books being written. Religious books being written. Books, especially during the intertestamental period, and the writings of the Jews outside of the canonical scriptures, sometimes in the apocryphal works.

And they all of a sudden come up with all sorts of theories about what was really going on. They start filling things in. The same thing happens when the Gnostics come along after the New Testament. They start writing all these books about what Jesus was like when he was a little kid.

Because we're not told much. And so it just automatically invites spectacular speculation. And that's what we have. And that was the case with Abel. Even more so the case with Enoch. And so they began, there had been all these things that the writer of the book of Hebrews could have referred to, that most of his audience would have been familiar with by that point in time.

These fables, things like that. Interestingly enough, he really just sticks to the biblical text. He just sticks to the biblical text. And so, some of the speculation about what it means that Abel, through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.

It can get pretty complicated. I think the simplest is the best. He still speaks as an example of a faithful man who did what he did by faith in God. Now, you might go, yeah, and it got him killed. Yeah, that happens.

That happens. But do you catch what might be somewhat of a really encouraging promise in that? Remember, he's writing to these people that have not yet resisted unto blood, but they will soon. Persecution is coming against them.

They've lost houses and lands and things like that. It's coming. Just as it's coming around here. I don't know if any of you caught the Supreme Court decision in Canada. This past week. Basically making, oh, Leviticus 18 and 20 illegal up there.

To even read it or comment on it. But, amazing stuff, and that's not very far away. And there's people that want that here. It's coming, and they were sort of in the same spot. And so, in the midst of that, you want to say things encouraging to those who are about to experience persecution.

And here's Abel. A man of faith. God testified about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. What does that mean? Well, we may not know it now. And I can guarantee you, when the death blow fell upon Abel, who was undoubtedly surprised, I'm sure, what had happened.

From his own brother. And mankind experienced something that it really hadn't experienced before. Abel didn't know. The thought in his mind at that point was not, well, because I've been faithful to God, I will be testifying of God's goodness and the role of faith and righteousness for thousands of years to come.

He didn't know that. He didn't know that. And you and I have no way of knowing. When we are faithful. When we experience persecution. We have no way of knowing how God may utilize that faithfulness long after we are gone.

It might be just in this life. We might see it in this life. We might be amongst the few who actually see how our testimony is seen by others and used by God to bring about their salvation or their encouragement or wherever else it might be.

But you see, the promise is that if you are faithful to God, even if you experience what Abel experienced, your faith continues to speak. Those faithful martyrs, those who have testified, I mean, we all, most of us I think, imagine like reading a little church history and we know about Christians down through the ages who have testified to God's faithfulness to them in face of death and persecution and imprisonment.

And sometimes we don't even know who they were. Sometimes we only know about a group of people who experienced this thing. And yet we are encouraged by that. The promise is that if you experience persecution based upon your faithfulness, that's not in vain.

That's not in vain. You may think it's happening over in the corner and nobody will ever know. But that's what Cain thought too. He thought this was a pretty good place. We're in a corner, nobody will ever know.

Blood's crying out from the ground. God has a way. God has a way of making sure justice is known. And even in the very last book of the Bible, we hear about martyrs. Their souls are under the altar and they're crying out, How long, O Lord?

Justice is going to be done. Justice is going to be done. And so, by faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice. Now, can we jump in here and start asking questions about the Ordo Salutis? No. There's one point.

Abel was a righteous man and he acted in accordance with his righteousness. He was a faithful man. By faith, he did these things. And that's what the writer is trying to show us. Remember, chapter 10 was saying, My faithful ones shall live.

By faith. That's the whole exhortation. We're not like those who draw back under destruction. We're those who, by faith, press forward. And so, here's some examples. You want to see the fact that you're not alone in this?

That you're not the first group of people that have been persecuted? Then notice as well what the author is doing. By tying this together, You see, I can guarantee you, The Jewish opponents, Remember what Hebrew is all about.

We've talked about it dozens and dozens of times. Come back to the old ways, come back to the old ways. Well, he's now demonstrated there's other things to go back to. But, one of the arguments, clearly, from the Jews would have been, You've cut yourself off, and what he's doing is saying, No, no, no, no.

You're the actual continuation of this faithful line that goes all the way back. We are the children of Abraham. How is it, That Abraham, It's going to be said right here in the next few verses, Children as numerous as the sand of the sea.

There aren't that many Jews around. Who are the true offspring of Abraham? We are, who have faith in Jesus Christ. And so you see, Here is the essence of what is being said. We need to look at that faithfulness.

And he's exhorting us to faith. And when he does, he's connecting us and saying, Look at all the people who've gone before you. You're not alone. We so often, We have a tendency, let's be honest, I have a tendency to be very individualistic.

Very private. That's the way I was raised. And so the tendency when you are that way, Is to not see yourself as much as a part of a community. And if you're not a part of a community, Then you're not a part of the history of that community, And that group, and that people.

It really seems to be the case with a lot of younger folks in our age. They don't, You know, I just like to read even fairly recent history. I guess because I had a relative when I was very young. And he was a Marine in Vietnam.

And he was a highly decorated Marine. And he bought me one of those, Remember how G .I. Joe used to be G .I. Joe? You know, he wasn't some alien fighting superhero or something. He was a Marine, for crying out loud.

And I had one, I've got a picture of me on my 7th birthday. Man, that thing stood about yay tall. It was in the dress Marine uniform. And I remember as a young person, He came home six months after he got back from Vietnam.

And decorated and all that stuff. Black ice on a bridge, killed in a car accident. But I just remember Feeling the connection to that Generation before me. And through that, The generation before that.

And I felt that connection to this, To a people. A lot of folks today were just Connected to our iPods. And man, Your iPod doesn't give you a whole lot To live for. Especially when it's battery dies. But what the author is doing here is saying There is a long Line of people who have Stood in faithfulness.

And don't let anybody tell you that you've been cut off from that. You are the continuation Of that. Well, I told myself I'm going to get at least through these verses. So I've got to pick up the pace here in the next Ten minutes or so.

Enoch, Pleasing God, and the Life of Faith

Verse 5. By faith Enoch was taken up so that He would not see death and he was not found Because God took him up. For he obtained the witness that before his being taken up He was pleasing to God. And without faith it is impossible to please him For he who comes to God must believe that he is And that he is a rewarder Of those who seek him.

Now we again know the story Enoch lived 65 years and became the father of Methuselah. This is Genesis 5 .21. Then Enoch walked with God 300 years After he became the father of Methuselah. And he had other sons and daughters.

So all the days of Enoch were 365 years Enoch walked with God And he was not For God took him. That's all it says. Genesis 5 .24 Enoch walked with God And he was not For God took him. As I said That really invites A great deal Of expansion on the part of those who Like to expand upon things.

And so there was And in the intertestamental period Enoch is everywhere. In fact even Jude quotes from Enoch From a popular book that would be like Pilgrim's Progress or something like that In those days.

In other words a book that was known to everybody. And so Enoch becomes It's real obvious there's something going on here. Notice it says That Enoch Walked with God 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah.

Now that's just I mean there are other people who are said to have walked with God But not in this way. There seems to be A consistency of fellowship And we can't pry into it We're just not given enough to be able to do so.

But we're told That he walked with God And he was not for God took him. Evidently Enoch didn't die. There's nothing Mentioned of his death. God took him. He was so pleased with Enoch Now think about what that means.

Within a fairly Similar period of time You have the depth Of evil found in Cain's heart that causes Him to slay his brother. And at the same time You have Enoch And Enoch is so pleasing To God that God takes him.

God took him. So you have The entire Expanse of human experience. It's been This way all along. There have been those who have Walked with God and God took him. And so notice the The explanation That is given By our author Is that Enoch was Pleasing to God that means He was pleasing by faith.

By faith Enoch Was taken up and this certainly shows us That this is not the kind of You know if you just used your faith You could have the health and the car And the house and all the rest of the silliness.

This wasn't something Where Enoch was controlling God and making God Like him or something. But instead when you have Someone who is so Conformed To God's will So pleasing to God That faith is an Intimate aspect.

So by faith Enoch was taken up so he would not See death and he was not Found because God took him Up and then you have the commentary For he obtained The witness that before his being Taken up he was pleasing To God.

He was pleasing to God. That by the way is the context for a verse A lot of us have memorized but frequently we don't memorize It with the context. Hebrews 11 6. And without faith it is impossible to Please him.

See there is a Context there and the context was There was someone who did. So much so that he was Taken up and didn't see death. Without faith it is impossible To please him for he who comes to God must believe That he is and that he is a rewarder of those Who seek him.

Clearly Enoch was a man of faith. He was a man of faith There were no questions Or doubts in his mind as to God's Existence. He was so In tune with God And intimately involved with God That he Recognized that God is a rewarder It seems that he was constantly Seeking after God.

That was his greatest joy Was to walk with God. R .C. Sproul has written a book Called Pleasing God. I don't know if any of you have read it. But I think Most of us will have to admit If we were to just sort of sit Back and consider things That this is Not a major topic Of Christian Consideration in our age.

I mean Put it this way If you wanted to fill up A big auditorium of people Which of the two Would you do? Prophecies concerning the coming Antichrist Here Friday night. Or Pleasing God. The first one You may have to turn people away Lots of folks that want to look at that But pleasing God.

Well let's just say that You might have Plenty of places to sit Pleasing God. He was pleasing to God When we analyze our own lives. When When we actually Turn off the sounds of the world Long enough For our own Thoughts to be heard again.

And we In a moment of honesty analyze Our own spiritual state. We ask ourselves the question The life that I live The priorities that I have Set in my life. How I think. How I behave How I dress. Even the goals that I have What I'm working so hard to accomplish.

Are those things. And more importantly Am I Pleasing to God. Now I don't believe outside of grace That anyone can be pleasing to God. I am not saying here that there is something We can work up within ourselves.

Shouldn't it be that the Regenerate heart The heart of the Person who That heart's been changed. That fleshly heart's been given to us. The heart of stone's been taken out. Shouldn't it be something that we constantly think about.

Am I Pleasing to God. Not just in this one action. You don't necessarily have to have a Silicon band around my wrist To go hmm okay. This one action But is the pattern of my life My goals My desires. Pleasing Not to myself.

We're big on that. That's the orthodoxy of our society. Please yourself. Or if you're Please others. Let that Social morality Determine what you're going to be. Please others. Our ultimate question should be am I pleasing to God.

God knows my heart. He knows my mind. I can't I can't deceive him. So if he looks at my heart If he looks at my thoughts Am I pleasing to God. There are many people who would say Well You follow after that kind of an Attitude.

And that's going to turn you into a radical. I mean that's just going to be so out of Step with this world. So out of step that Enoch didn't even see death. I mean can you imagine what it was like. Family comes home.

Where is Enoch. I don't know. Where do you think he went. I don't know. Did he go on a journey. Did he call 911. I mean what did they do. Think about it. We just go yeah he was taken. And we sort of figure what was he allowed to leave.

What was that note like. I mean It's a time period Where things are happening for the first time. And some things are really unusual. And this was really unusual. Or was it that the people Who knew him best Already knew That he was so In tune with God So in love with the things of God So desirous of being pleasing To God.

Do you think after a few minutes of looking around A few minutes of talking Someone wise Someone who also wanted to please God Said We don't need to be looking for him. God's taken him. God's taken him to be with himself.

And I have to wonder How many of us If God took us Would anyone we know even give thought to that. Would that even be on the plate. Without faith It is impossible to please him. And one of the reasons That this message seems to ring hollow For a lot of people today is The call to be pleasing To God.

You almost never hear it. You almost never hear it. The heart That has been Touched by the spirit of God Recognizes I out of love Want to be pleasing To the one who has changed me and redeemed me. So much of what calls itself Christianity today.

It's all focused on Me, me, me pleasing myself Using God to please myself. That's why I call it. That's so called Christianity. I don't think it is. I don't think it is. But my hope and prayer for us today Is that as we read these words.

And we He was pleasing to God. Without faith it's impossible to please him. Lord Give me the faith To be pleasing to you. Not so that you'll reward me. But because it reflects Who I really am. That's why Enoch was taken.

And that's why this promise is given to us. Without faith. It's impossible to please him. May we seek In this day In this coming week To be pleasing to God. Not by some kind of external Ritualistic obedience.

But by The obedience of faith Which can only come From a changed.

Indeed our Heavenly Father.

We thank you for this word And we thank you for these faithful men of old. And we thank you That they still speak To this day. But they speak Because of their faith. Lord help us to be faithful In this coming week.

And if there be any here Who have not faith Have not repented Have not believed May they hear the message May you show them their sin May they desire To be pleasing to you By being obedient to your commands To bow the knee in repentance and faith to Jesus Christ.

We thank you for this hour. We thank you for your word And its message to us. We pray in Christ's name Amen.