By Faith - [Hebrews 11:1-3]

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Some people think that because Jesus died, then the Father's able to love us.
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But of course, it's the other way around. Because the Father did love us, he sent his son to die on our behalf.
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What a great reminder. I also don't know if you know, congregation, that song we sang, the incarnation, our incarnation,
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Tim Pierce wrote that. So I was glad to sing a new hymn written by our own Tim Pierce. So thank you,
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Tim, for that. And I wanted him to say, I wrote this song, but I knew you wouldn't do that, so.
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I said to Pastor Steve, as we were singing the song, Pastor Steve had you, have you checked this song for theological accuracy?
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And he just gave me that Steve look. Steve, thanks for preaching last week. I heard it was a great message from Ephesians 2.
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I hope you were encouraged in your congregation. When I was growing up, we didn't read very much.
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And I don't know if that was because of our teachers. That's because we were living in Nebraska. But I do remember reading a few books.
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Most of the Cliff Notes I read. I remember reading Jaws, Contiki, Alive.
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I remember Mad Magazine we regularly read. I remember Guinness Book of World Records.
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And probably the one I read the most, not in one sitting, of course, was, do you remember in the late 70s, the
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Book of Lists? All the different lists put together by David Walikensky and his father
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Irving Wallace and sister Amy Wallace. And they just had a list of all kinds of different things. The longest lists of places where you should not hitchhike.
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People suspected of being Jack the Ripper. People misquoted by Ronald Reagan. There was a lot of things in that list.
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Breeds of dogs that bite the most and the least, et cetera. But today we're gonna look at the list of lists.
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Out of all the lists that are in the world, this is the list. Turn your Bibles, please, to Hebrews chapter 11.
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The list of all lists, Hebrews 11. I've been waiting for this chapter. I know you have as well.
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And here's the issue in this example list, in this biblical list, the most famous list
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I think in the world, is that like John 3 .16, maybe it's your favorite verse in all the
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Bible, the most quoted verse in all the Bible, it's also not understood very well. Most people don't know the meaning of John 3 .16
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because they forget the context. They forget it starts with the word for. So they have a hard time with it.
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Similar fashion, in a similar fashion, we don't understand Hebrews 11 because it's almost too familiar to us.
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We just accept it as this hall of faith, as this roll call of the faithful. And so today we're gonna look at Hebrews chapter 11, probably just an overview of it and the first couple of verses, because I want you to understand it.
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I want you to read it. And as you do, I want you to read it with understanding. And then it will help you all the more to say, you know,
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Lord, what you've done for these people and how you're immutable and how you don't change and how you're their
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God and you're my God in the midst of trials. I think you'll be encouraged. And so we're gonna look at today
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Hebrews chapter 11, the hall of faith as some call it, this great chapter in the
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Bible. And my goal this morning is simple. I just want you to understand this passage better. I wrestled with Hebrews 11 the last two weeks longer than maybe any other section in Hebrews or at least tied because I come to the passage and I think
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I know what it means, but then I wanna make sure I understand exactly what God is saying.
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So we're gonna have a little bit different approach today, but I think you'll be encouraged. As you know, this book, the book of Hebrews is the exaltation of Christ Jesus.
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He, the writer, the preacher has an announcement and this announcement is no matter who you compare
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Jesus to, he is better. He uses that word better often. He's superior. And you can think of the greatest people, the greatest creatures, the greatest things in all the world.
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And you can think, you know what? When I actually compare them and put them on a scale, Jesus has more weight.
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He has more gravity. He has more gravitas. All these other things are like feathers compared to the weight of pewter in the essence and nature of Jesus.
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You think angels are great? They have nothing on Jesus. You think Moses was great and angels were great?
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Moses was great, but they have nothing on Jesus. You think the system of sacrifice and Aaron and the old covenant with all its smells and bells and beauty and purple and pomegranates and substitution in shadow form, you think that was great?
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And it was, Jesus is greater. And this writer wants to make sure you think the same way he does.
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What's the purpose of showing the greatness of Jesus? For you to just brush him off? For you to say that's good for you?
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That was good 2 ,000 years ago? No, the preacher wants you to believe in what he believes, right?
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The purpose is for you to say, yes, matter of fact, I get bogged down during the week. Trials come, issues come, sickness comes.
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I need to kind of have a reboot to make sure I remember that Jesus is great.
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Every Saturday night, I do the same thing. I set up my clothes, get everything ready. I don't want any kind of chaos on Sunday morning because I know when
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I get here, the chaos will be waiting for me. And I always reboot my iPad on Saturday night because I don't want any glitches.
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And so every Sunday morning, since we live in this world of law and do, and have you done enough?
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Have you earned God's favor? How could you do that this week? Everything we go through in our mind mentally, we need a reboot.
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And here's the reboot. I have good news for you. That no matter what you've done in terms of your failings and your sins and your lawlessness, dear
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Christian, Jesus' atonement is enough for you. And he's proved that by being raised from the dead.
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And so this writer wants you to think the way he thinks. And the way he thinks is simple. No matter what your eyes see and no matter what you go through, you can trust the word of God.
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You can trust the Lord Jesus. I love this book because it's all about Jesus.
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I said to Larry this week on the phone, hope to see you on Sunday. And if I see I got a deal for you,
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Larry, I'll tell you about who Jesus is. And he said, okay. No wonder they call
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Hebrews the fifth gospel because the gospel of Jesus Christ, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John extoll
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Jesus. One trick pony, one string guitar, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
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Does anybody have any good news for me? Yes, Jesus is superior. If you're here today and you're not trusting in this
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Jesus, that is our hope and our prayer that you would bow the knee in repentance and faith and trust in this risen savior.
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How do we interpret Hebrews chapter 11? You might be saying, Mike, you think it's hard. I think it's easy.
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And maybe that's true. Or maybe you were thinking like I thought when I first approached this familiar text.
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So this morning, let me give you for an outline some very practical ways to interpret
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Hebrews 11 properly. How do we hermeneutically, how do we with interpretation look at this passage to understand it rightly?
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Because if you don't get it right, it's not God's word, right? The text is what
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God says. And if we have a different interpretation, it's not the right interpretation. That would be wrong. So we want to know what
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God has said when he spoke by the Holy Spirit through this writer. Maybe Paul, maybe someone else.
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How do I understand Hebrews chapter 11? That's the outline.
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Let me just read the very beginning of the passage. And then at the end for a framework before we get into the outline.
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Hebrews 11 verse 1 ESV. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
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For by it, the people of old received their commendation. By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
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By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain through which he was commended as righteous.
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God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
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By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death. And he was not found because God had taken him.
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Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith, it is impossible to please him.
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For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
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And then we have the long list of Noah, Abraham, Sarah, and others.
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Skip down to verse 36. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.
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They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth.
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And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised since God had provided something better for us that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.
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This chapter, I'm not exaggerating, is epic. This chapter is foundational.
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And this chapter is very, very encouraging. How do we understand it? In order to understand
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Hebrews 11, number one, you must grasp the context. You said, no surprise here, pastor, we understand context is important.
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And so these principles that I'm gonna give you for Hebrews 11, by the way, work for any place in the Bible. So you say, well, how do we interpret the
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Bible, this text that's at least 2 ,000 years old, written in Greek in the New Testament, Old Testament, Hebrew and Aramaic, different culture,
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Eastern, we're Western, all these things that are different, how do we interpret this book? And so if you use these principles that I'm using this morning with Hebrews 11, you will be helped.
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Number one, context. Now, the first thing that we see here is the word now.
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Do you see it in chapter 11, verse one? Some chapter divisions in the Bible are wonderful.
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And some chapter divisions in the Bible are not helpful. This is one of those where it falls into the second category.
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If you think of Galatians five at the end, it talks about that the fruit of the Spirit is what? Love, joy, peace.
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And then we have chapter six, like it's this new chapter, but while love, joy and peace are attitude fruits of the
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Spirit, what's the action fruit of the Spirit? When the Spirit is working in the hearts of people, what's it look like? Answer, chapter six of Galatians, you restore people who fall into sin.
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Here we have chapter 11, kind of like it's just dropped in the middle of nowhere. It has something that it follows and it has something that comes after it.
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This familiar passage, Hebrews 11, needs to be thought of in my super technical, and I'm sorry to, you know, you're not supposed to use polysyllabic words from the pulpit, our super technical things from the pulpit, but I must do it today.
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Think about this as a sandwich. End of chapter 10 is the bread.
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Chapter 12 at the beginning is the bread. And the centerpiece, the meat, is chapter 11.
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So whenever I think of chapter 11, I think something came before it, something comes after. It's like a sandwich. And so to understand 11, what does it have before?
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What does it have after? Let's find out. The two questions solve the problem. How does 10 end? How does 12 begin?
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Therefore, you won't have this disconnected from everything else. Chapter 10, verse 32 of Hebrews, with this theme of endurance.
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And you're going to see that word endure, our endurance, in both end of 10 and the beginning of 12.
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Hebrews 10, 32. But recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, sometimes being partners with those so treated.
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For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession, and an abiding one.
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Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward, for you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.
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What do you tell people who are suffering and they're Hebrews? You give them the Bible, and he gives a little composite of Isaiah 26 and Habakkuk 2 in the next two verses.
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He gives them the Bible. For yet for a little while, the coming one, the Lord Jesus, the one who was, the one who is, and the one to come, will come and will not delay.
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This isn't going to last forever. And then he gives the quote that's very familiar from Reformation time, from Habakkuk 2, from Romans 1, from Galatians 3, but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, that's the opposite of faith, my soul has no pleasure in him.
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This isn't going to last forever, so you need to endure. This is language, by the way, in secular usage, that the men at the front line, the infantry men, are approached by the lieutenant, or maybe a colonel, and he says, hold the line for a little while longer.
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The cavalry's coming, backups are coming. He has said in chapter 9, we are waiting for the soon return of Jesus for salvation.
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We are eagerly awaiting for him. How do you help people persevere that are
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Jewish? You give them the scriptures, and then it says in verse 39, do you see it? But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith, and preserve their souls.
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Of course, holding fast and having faith isn't a condition of their salvation, it's an evidence of their salvation, but that's what we're talking about here at the end of 10.
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Endure, have faith, don't shrink back, persevere. That's the top part of the sandwich.
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What's the bottom part of the sandwich? Go to chapter 12, verses one and two. Therefore, Hebrews 12, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the human
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Jesus, the God -man Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, what?
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Endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
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You see what's happening? Chapter 10 at the end, endure, don't shrink back, don't be like those apostates, keep believing.
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I know you're going through trouble, I know you're going through persecution, I know there's difficult times, but you can't go back, you have to keep walking by faith, because Jesus has endured, because Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith.
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Now here's the other thing that I think some forget when they look at Hebrews chapter 11, when it comes to context.
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These Jewish people, think about it for a second, when I thought about this this week, this was kind of one of those, oh, one of these great moments.
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If I ever were to just do this in my office and just think, oh God, thank you, this would be the time.
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You ready? Jews, you want to go back because you're getting persecuted.
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Everything was fine in your life, and the temple's right over there, and you're worshiping, and everything's fine. You're introduced to Jesus, the
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Messiah. You say you trust in Him, you say you believe in Him, and now everything breaks loose, trouble, persecutions, they take your home, you're on the run, you can't go out in public, you can't serve, you can't eat, you can't be part of the synagogue, you can't do anything, and you're thinking, is it worth it, should
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I go back? By the way, everybody in Hebrews chapter 11, they're
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Jewish people who are looking forward. Enoch was looking forward to the day you're in.
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Noah was looking for the day you're in. Abraham was looking for the day you're in. They're all looking for the
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Messiah to come, and by the way, He's come, and you have Him by faith. Why would you go back? I mean, you would just be caught in a loop forever, because you're thinking,
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I better go back to Judaism, because if I go back to Judaism, life's easier. Go back to Judaism, what was
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Judaism doing? Looking forward, looking to the Messiah. Sarah, Abraham, Samson, they all were looking for the
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One who's come. Now you've got Him. Don't go back. Difficult times, you're going to stop believing in Jesus?
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No, you can't do that, endure. All these Jews were looking for the
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Messiah, Jesus, and there's a whole list of all these people. One writer said, chapter 11 is a challenge to remember what the original purpose of the old covenant was all about.
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You want to go back to the old covenant? Your fathers of the old covenant were looking by faith to what you now possess in the gospel.
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Why would you want to go back since what you now have fulfills their expectations? How do you understand this book?
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Number one, grasp context. Number two, recognize figures of speech. Recognize figures of speech.
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Now there's all kinds of figures of speech in the Bible, and you can think of similes and metaphors and Leviticus and other things.
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We have figures of speech in Hebrews chapter 11, and if you get them, or if you get it, especially, you'll understand the
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Bible better. Now, what is a figure of speech? It's been defined as a word or a sentence thrown into a particular form different from its original or simplest meaning or use.
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And the Bible's full of figure of speeches. I pulled out my Bollinger's figures of speech a book this week.
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It's a good doorstop. I don't use it that often because I have everything I need in kind of digital forms.
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But even the table of contents is 28 pages with 200 different kinds of figures of speech.
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Why would the Bible have figures of speech? Well, there's lots of reasons. It makes you remember things.
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It adds color. It's vivid. It's spectacular. I mean, if I told you it's really raining hard, you'd go, yeah, it's raining hard.
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If I said something like it's raining cats and dogs, you'd go, oh, okay, I can pay attention to that.
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If I said, so -and -so is a good gardener. They're horticulturally adept.
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Easy for you to say. If I said, no, that person has a what? A green thumb.
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Oh, it's just an interesting way to say it. I don't know what you call your spouse. Maybe you call your spouse honey, sweetheart.
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Those are all figures of speech. Maybe you have heard of Jesus called the
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Lamb of God. There's different ways that figures of speech come together. And it just helps you remember.
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It gives color, vividness, boldness. God is faithful. God is trustworthy. But I could say this way.
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God is a rock, a refuge, a mighty fortress. That's a figure of speech.
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Well, the figure of speech found in Hebrews chapter 11 is, does anybody know? I will buy you a coffee if you know the name.
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It's a Greek word. Anybody know the figure of speech? That if you get this, you probably get Hebrews 11.
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Anaphora. I didn't say anaphylaxis. Anaphora, A -N -A -P -H -O -R -A.
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Anaphora. And what you would do is you repeat something, the first few lines of something over and over and over so that you would remember it.
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So it would flow. So it would have this repetition of these sequence of words so that you would go, oh,
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I get the emphasis. Now, before we look at our passage, Shakespeare said, mad world, mad kings, mad composition.
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William Blake said, what the hammer, what the chain, in what furnace was thy brain?
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What the anvil, what dread grasp, dare its deadly tears clasp? Byron said, strike as I struck the foe.
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Strike as I would have struck those tyrants. Strike deep as my curse. Strike, but only once.
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And when you probably know, and why do you know it? Why do you know this almost by heart?
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From Dickens' Tale of Two Cities. It was the best of times.
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What's the next sentence? It's Anaphora. It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom.
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It was the age of foolishness. It was the epic of belief. It was the epic of incredulity.
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It was the season of light. You can study, even today, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s
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speech, I Have a Dream, regularly repeating that phrase. Psalm 29,
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Anaphora. The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the
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Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
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The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forest bare.
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That's Anaphora. A repeating of a sequence of words at the beginning of the clause.
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And so what's our Anaphora here? By faith, by faith, by faith.
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He wants you to remember it. He wants you to be inspired by it. He wants you to be encouraged by it.
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That's why you use Anaphora. He's trying to persuade. He's trying to inspire you to think through this.
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And it's kind of tricky, because at the beginning of this Anaphora chapter, Enoch, Abraham, and you're just kind of caught up and it's going well and they're all doing pretty good.
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Life is good for them. Enoch walked with God and then God took him. He didn't walk any longer. And by the time you're taken into this
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Anaphora and you're just kind of sauntering through this, by the end, we're getting sawn in two.
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Very, very effective way to motivate, to have people remember, to have this example list.
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As you walk through this example list, this Anaphora, you're gonna see it's just not an example of a person.
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They are what I call redemptive examples. People who have been redeemed by the
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Messiah and people who are looking forward. And why is that so important for those who are going through trials?
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It's like Graham Scroggie, a pastor in Scotland years and years ago. He was a new pastor, young, made some changes.
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And what do they usually do to pastors who are young and make changes? Done, right?
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Never happened to you, Bob? Out of everybody here, Bob's the main one smiling. He stood his ground, he gets kicked out.
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He's got no house, no way to provide for his wife and two children.
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And a guy came up and said, Pastor Scroggie, what are you going to do? And he said, Well, I'm gonna do what
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I did before I got fired. I'm gonna walk by faith and I'm gonna trust in God's promises. These people are in this chapter to motivate you to say, you know what?
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No matter what I'm going through, I can trust in who the Lord is. He hasn't let me down.
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I can't see Him, I can see my trials. He is invisible and my trials and temptations are not, but I'm gonna be encouraged.
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I'm led along this redemptive list all the way up to and including the
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Lord Jesus. You'll notice in this anaphora, forward -looking future examples by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith.
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How do you understand any book of the Bible, any chapter of the Bible, any verse of the Bible? Recognize grasp context, number two.
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Recognize figures of speech, number three. You ready for this one? You know this all too well, dear congregation.
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Read carefully the passage. Read slowly.
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Now here's the trick. The anaphora here is by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith.
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But if you don't read slowly, if you don't read carefully, here's what you read because we all do it together.
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By faithfulness, by faithfulness, by faithfulness, by faithfulness. We don't see by faith, we see by faithful.
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And there is a difference, faith and faithfulness. Faith is not faithfulness. Talked about this many years ago and regularly talk about it.
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If I ask you, are you a person of faith? Most of you would say, especially here at BBC, yes.
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What does that look like, you being a person of faith? And what do you say to me? I read the
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Bible, I pray, go to church, have a ministry, try to use my spiritual gifts.
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Amen, praise the Lord. But that's not a definition of faith. That's a definition of what?
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Faithfulness. If I said, tell me, are you a person of faith? Yes, I am. What's that look like to you?
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Well, here's what it looks like. It's not always a powerful believing. But I do believe, even with a little bit of faith, even just a weak faith, that Jesus Christ is who
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He said He is. And that He is the eternal Son and He adds humanity so that He could be our representative.
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And so He could bear my sins, so that He could be born of a woman, born under a law, that He might redeem us from the curse of the law.
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And He was raised from the dead. And He said, if you believe in Me, you'll have eternal life. And I'm all in trusting
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Jesus. That's a person not of faithfulness, but of faith. So when we come to this chapter, if you're not careful, you're gonna think
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Abel, faithful, Enoch, faithful, Abraham, faithful, Sarah, faithful,
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Noah, faithful, Jephthah, faithful, Samson, faithful.
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And you're gonna think to yourself, I'm in trials and I'm not doing what I should be doing. And I'm sorry that I don't and I'm repenting of those things.
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But I could never be those faithful people. But if you look at this with the word faith, for faith in Jesus, the
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Messiah, who for us has come and for them would come. That's completely different. And on your deathbed, if I say to you, how faithful have you been?
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You'll know I'm tricking you because I'll want you to end up saying, what kind of faith do you have? No, who is the object of your faith?
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If you are less than faithful, this chapter is important for you. Now, by the way, the word faithful is found in Hebrews 11, true or false?
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By faith is found, I think 18 times. Is faithful found in the book of Hebrews 11?
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The word faithful. You say, well, maybe you're playing this game, faith, faithfulness. Oh yes, you know what? I will give you the exception.
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Faithful is found in Hebrews 11, 11. Let's read it together. By faith,
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Sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.
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Oh, sorry. The word faithful is found in Hebrews 11, but it's spoken of God being faithful.
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I mean, when you look at chapter 11, verse seven, and we'll get into this next week as well. By faith,
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Noah. Can you imagine? He's warned by God, 120 years, he starts constructing the ark.
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It had never rained before. It says in your text, does it not? In reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household.
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You know, these Jewish people who got this knew what Noah did when he got out of the boat.
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And what did Noah do when he got out of the boat? Genesis nine,
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Noah began to be a man of the soil and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.
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And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father.
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Their faces were turned backwards and they did not see their father's nakedness. Not too faithful, but Noah had faith.
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What about Samson? What do we do later in the book, chapter 11, with Samson in verse 32?
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I mean, we could talk about Jacob, the deceiver. What do we do with him? We could talk about Abraham, don't sleep with her.
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She's my, don't kill me, sleep with my sister. She's not my wife times two. We could go through the list here.
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But I mean, the ones that really get me are Samson and Japheth, especially Samson.
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If you think faithful, you're not gonna get it. If you think by faith, Samson, you'll understand. Listen to Judges 14,
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Samson went down to Timnah and at Timnah, he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. Then he came up and told his father and mother.
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Is this how you talk to your dad? I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.
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If Luke ever said that to me. But his father and mother said to him, is there not a woman?
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I can almost hear the dad, kind of a mousy dad. But is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives or among all our peoples that you must go take away from the uncircumcised
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Philistines? And Samson said to his father, get her for me for she is right in my eyes.
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Samson's in the hall of faithfulness? No, he's in the hall of faith. Judges 16,
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Samson went to Gaza and there he saw a prostitute and he went into her. You know the rest of the story.
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So what I want you to do when you look at the Bible and especially Hebrews 11, because we're gonna be at in the next five to six weeks probably.
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I want you to say, you know, what's the context? Endurance chapter 10, endurance chapter 12, endurance by faith in chapter 11.
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I want you to say there are figures of speech that are going on here so I can recognize things like by faith, by faith, by faith. I want you to not read too fast so you just don't accept what you normally think is there but you're processing through.
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By faith is different than by faithfulness. Number four, I want you to embrace theological vocabulary.
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I want you to embrace theological vocabulary. Now I know I said earlier,
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Old Testament is written in Hebrew with a little Aramaic, New Testament is written in Greek, but that's not what
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I mean here, embrace theological vocabulary. You go to a different country, they speak differently in different parts of the country, they have different dialects and we dear
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Christians speak a different language and that's called the gospel language. We talk differently than other people do.
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And if you can talk differently then you have different vocabulary and it should not surprise us.
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So here's some theological vocabulary that you need to know to understand Hebrews 11 because otherwise you can read it to use a figure of speech till the cows come home and not understand it.
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And it'll be Latin. If I was R .C. Sproul, I'd write on a chalkboard right here. By the way, before I died, I got to see
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R .C. Sproul write on Latin, write with a chalkboard writing Latin. Tim, you probably saw it all the time, didn't you?
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You never saw it? No chalkboard. Well, I'm the anointed one and you're just sitting there.
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I get special things. Simul justus et peccator.
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You need to think this kind of language. I could put it this way. You need to have an analogy of the faith. You need to have a systematic theology.
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You need to think in proper categories. Simul justus et peccator.
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Simul, simultaneous. That's an easy one. Justus, it starts with a
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J in Latin and it's like it's Spanish. We would have a J, a Y sound. Justus, just, are righteous.
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Et, always like R .C. Sproul says, et is the past tense for eat. What have you et?
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No, but it's and. Peccator. I didn't say pescato. I said peccator, okay?
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Sin, sinner. Simultaneously declared righteous by the perfect law keeping of Jesus.
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This is language of justification. And yet every one of us knows simultaneously with that, we still sin, do we not?
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We are still sinful people. And so if you look at this list and you just go faithful, you're off base.
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And if you also say to yourself, you know what? How can godly people sin so much?
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The answer is found in we're not glorified yet. We are positionally declared righteous by the work of another.
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But practically, we still deal with sin. Otherwise, you would have no category for Paul when he said in Romans 7,
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I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
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I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. When you think of categories like this, simultaneously just yet I still sin, you're gonna be saying to yourself, you know what?
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That explains why David could write Psalms and then sleep with Bathsheba.
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This isn't an excuse. This is an observation. Of course, we should not sin the grace may abound, but we are righteous and at the same time sinners.
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And finally for today, to help us understand, observe theological shorthand.
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Observe theological shorthand. Now we're gonna look at verses one and two. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
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For by it, Hebrews 11 to people of old received their commendation.
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Now, if I were to tell you, the just shall live by faith from chapter 10, is theological shorthand.
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I think you'd easily get it because you would say, wait a second, the one declared just by the perfect work of Jesus imputed to his account and the sin of that man or woman imputed to the account of Jesus confirmed by the resurrection.
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The just person, the one declared just in God's courtroom, acquitted by the righteousness of another, alien righteousness, forensically, judicially just.
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The just shall live, present tense, by faith. It's not faith in faith. It's not faith in feeling faith.
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It's not faith in blind faith. It's not faith in some kind of Kierkegaardian leap of faith. It's faith in the object, the
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Lord Jesus. There's theological shorthand going on all the time in the Bible. The just shall live by faith is theological shorthand.
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Here we have some shorthand as well because you initially read Hebrews 11 .1 and you think this is the definition of all definitions of faith.
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No other definitions matter, but this is not truly a complete definition.
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This is what faith looks like, but it's not a complete definition. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
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If you don't say to yourself, this is a partial definition of faith, it's going to be difficult for you to get through this chapter.
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Now, in Reformed circles, we say faith is knowledge, assent, and trust, right? Remember that cat, K -A -T?
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Knowledge, assent, and trust. I know Carl's here. He hasn't been here too many times, but that's the only cat I like, Carl, but I do like that cat,
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K -A -T, knowledge, assent, and trust. But you said, I don't see the Reformation stuff in here.
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It's not there. Well, because he's using shorthand, and he's not trying to give a complete definition, a full definition, an expansive definition.
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He's trying to show you what faith looks like, a faith that rests, a faith that trusts, a faith that endures, a faith that doesn't shrink back.
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So context is important. It's not a formal definition. But what does this mean?
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So I want to look at it right now, and there's two key words found in verse one that help us with his ongoing kind of defining less than perfect definition.
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And I mean by less than perfect, there are other things that we could say. For instance, let me use a different illustration. True or false, sin is lawlessness.
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True. Is that the only thing sin is? That's just a partial definition. Sin stems from unbelief.
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Sin leads to idolatry. Sin, yes, is lawlessness, but that's not all it is. So context will help us.
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What's the aspect here that he's after? He's after the aspect of a faith that endures, that even though there's a trial, what does this faith look like for them and for you?
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Two words. In the ESV, those two words are assurance and conviction.
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Assurance and conviction. And one is kind of informing the other. It doesn't say, it doesn't give us an equal sign after things hope for, but that's essentially what he's doing.
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These words are an apposition. They're helping us see a full definition of this component of faith.
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Full definition, I shouldn't have said that, a full composite of what faith looks like.
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The two words are assurance and conviction. Now here's the wild part.
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Some of you that have the King James Bible, it says this, now faith is the, what's it say, Robert?
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Substance. One says assurance, one says substance. And there are two options in one's assurance and one's substance.
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Actually, there are four options, but I'm boiling it down. Another figure of speech to the two.
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There's kind of a subjective option, ESV, assurance, and an objective option, substance.
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Things lending substance to something. So why would he say either one and what's he trying to say?
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And I think it's vague enough so that we can kind of get it. He says, this is an assurance, a confidence.
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I know that I have a certainty in my heart about what's true. What God has revealed in His word,
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I have this subjective knowledge, this certainty in my heart that what God has said is true. I see the problems,
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I see the cancer, I see the trials, I see the life, I see the death, I see injustice in the world, but I'm relying on what the word says and I have this attitude about my circumstance that isn't because of the circumstance, it's in spite of the circumstance.
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I'm walking by faith, not by what? Sight. This word is translated confidence in Hebrews 3 .14.
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If indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. Most translations have this confidence assurance, but the objective side is interesting.
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It means a foundation. It means technically the word to stand under.
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And I don't know if you stand under things. I always, if I'm in Los Angeles or California, I'm in a parking lot and I have to park on the bottom parking lot level and there's 15 stories above me.
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I only have one thought in my mind. What's that thought? Earthquake, 8 .8. That's what I'm thinking. If you're standing under something, you're usually, except in this particular case in California, you're sure that this foundation is strong and that it holds.
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It means to stand. It means substance. It means lending substance to something.
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Some translate it as a title deed. Quote, faith is like a title deed to the property in that it acts as a guarantee that the unseen property, in this case, the glory of the eternal life that the
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Lord really is ours. Laying hold of this idea.
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And to me, I have both of the concepts in my mind. The person has subjective assurance in themselves of a sure external foundation, the truth of God.
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Let me repeat that. The person has a confidence and an assurance subjectively, a certainty in their heart about the foundational truth and substance of the word of God.
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No wonder 2 Corinthians says, so we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
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As we look to things that are seen, no, but to the things that are unseen. That's the idea here.
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And by the way, do you see the text? It's assurance of things hoped for. This is a future confidence, a future hope, a confidence in the future.
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Things are very difficult now. And you think, you know what? I have this resolution. I have this subjective confidence, this assurance based on the word of God that the
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Lord is there in the future. This is the opposite of apostasy. Now the other word is found in the same verse and it's the word conviction.
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But of course the King James doesn't translate that either. What's the King James translate conviction, Robert? Evidence, conviction or evidence.
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We move from future looking assurance of things hoped for. What about now? What about present? This word can be used of the certainty in a judge's mind about a case that comes before him.
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I know what the answer is. The conviction of things not seen.
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The evidence only occurs here in the New Testament. Very interesting word, but it helps us.
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And by the way, does anybody here have Francis Turton's Institutes of El Anctic Theology?
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Okay. Well, I guess you're the greeter after the service. El Anctic is the
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Greek word here. And what Turton tries to do is he just tries to put a mass of evidence before you so that when it comes to Sola Scriptura, you just go, okay.
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I mean, there's 500 pages on this. It's evidence after evidence after evidence, line upon line, line upon line.
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Or you just go, I can't do anything but submit. That's the idea here. Objective evidence.
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Somebody saying, you know what? I don't know about that. It is the Bible for real. How could God be loving and put you in that spot?
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No, no, I have the evidence from Scripture and I'm gonna trust it anyway. The Jews would have gotten that.
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They would have understood that. Faith can't see, but it's convinced.
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And all these people did the same thing. Could Abel see? Could Enoch see? Could Noah see?
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Could Abraham see? They were all seen with future eyes, with eyes of faith, but they couldn't see, but they had the evidence because God had spoken.
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That's why when you say in the midst of a trial, does God love me? I will be nice to you, but I will preach to you about the love of God for his children.
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Hughes said in striking contrast to the man whose values are entirely those of this present world, the
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Christian is animated by the conviction, the evidence that it is the very things that are not seen, those things which he appropriates by faith that are real and permanent.
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He walks by faith, not by sight. You can see things with your eyes around this physical world, but you can see things with the eyes of faith, knowing the future.
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And by the way, you in a trial will have this experience probably more than those who are having an easy time in life at the moment.
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Because what are your options? You're gonna throw yourself on what? How are you gonna rely on whom?
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I think probably, and I've told the story too many times, and I don't wanna make it about me, but when my mom died and she had the last breath on that bed,
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I have never believed in the promises of God more. Why? Because I'm so great?
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No, because I'm realizing I'm going to have to be trusting in the future promises of God about forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption, promises of heaven, promises of God, how he never leaves nor forsakes, how
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Jesus in John 17 has a promise that he makes the Father, how John 14, I go to heaven to make a place for you.
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That's what faith does. It makes, as one commentator says, real to us things that are otherwise unreal to our experience.
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It presents to our hearts things that cannot be seen with our eyes. It's gonna flood, it's never rained.
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Noah trusted in God's word. That's the idea. You're gonna have as many children as the stars of the sky.
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Abraham trusted in that from God. So this isn't a comprehensive definition, but for the context, it is perfect.
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Assurance and conviction. Ambrose Beerson, an American cynic said, belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge and of things without parallel is faith.
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I feel sorry for him. The object of our faith, Jesus Christ, the great high priest, can be trusted with certainty because his foundation is sure.
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That's the idea. Well, we're not even to verse two, but that's all right. I'll just give you a taste for next week.
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For by it, people of old are literally, old people, that's what it says, presbyteries, presbyteros, they receive their commendation.
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There's no other way to receive commendation of God except trusting in the work of the Son because what
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God expects from us is perfect, entire, exact, perpetual obedience.
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So you're gonna have to trust in one who does that. That's for next week. How do you understand the
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Bible? Well, you come to it and you say, I need to know context. I can see figures of speech. I can see theological shorthand.
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I can see theological concepts. And we're all ready for next week. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
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And we will look at creation of the world by divine fiat, Abel, Enoch, and Noah.
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And you know what I just said in my mind, but I wasn't gonna say it out loud. If there is a next week, and there might just not be a next week.
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I try to preach every Sunday, like this is my last sermon. You ought to listen to sermons like they could be your last sermon.
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But here's what I do know. Even though this might be my last sermon, I'm trusting in the promise of God about the future where there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
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And nothing will ever separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. How do I know that? I have a firm certainty, a resolute assurance, a conviction, because the promises of God are true.
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Right? Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for our time in your word. Thank you that you have granted to us faith.
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We realize faith isn't even anything we've come up with, but you've granted to us not only to suffer,
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Philippians 1, but also to believe. We're thankful for that. And Father, as we go through our week this week, it would be great if you would help us look with anticipation to the son's soon return, your son's soon return.
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And Father, I pray he comes back. I pray that he would come back this week. What a day of rejoicing that would be.
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And I pray it in Jesus' name, amen. All right, we're gonna sing one final song in response.
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I don't know if you know this, but the rhythm of worship is very simple, and it is we receive revelation from God, from his word, and we respond, right?
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You watch a baby being born, and you think, wow, this is amazing. And you hear about the truth from God's word, and then we respond.