Keep sharing good news without ads.
Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/william-lavery/hebrews-11/
I also will try not to take too much time. Turn please to Hebrews chapter 11. Just read a few verses. Verse 4. Hebrews 11 verse 4. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts.
And by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith in it was translated that he should not see death, and was not found because God had translated him. But before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh unto God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
By faith Abraham, when he was called to God into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. And he went out, not knowing whether he went. Verse 11. Through faith also Sarah herself conceived, received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age.
Verse 20. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshipped, leaning upon the top of a staff. By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones.
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child. Verse 25. Choosing rather, speaking of Moses, to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
And then finally, verse 31. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies in peace. Now we know that God always blesses the reading of his precious Word.
Now if I ask you right now, what did all these people that we read of have in common? I'm sure we would all say they were men and women of faith, and that's absolutely correct. But they had something else in common, especially maybe all of them.
Maybe I'd take the last one out, Rahab, but all the rest of them had something else in common, and that is they always had something about them. They all had something about them that was like the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's what I want to touch very briefly about those that we have read. These men and women of faith, and those things that they had, that would remind us of the Lord Jesus. Because if we're men and women of faith, we're going to be characterized by Christ-likeness.
And while I'm going to show maybe one thing that each, from each of these, we don't just want to be showing one facet of these things, just one aspect of it, but we want to be like the Lord Jesus, don't we?
That's the desire of every believer. It's God's desire. We're going to be like the Lord Jesus. He said, now it's time you're going in for it now. And there's no better time than right now. Some of us might have wasted a few years or a few more, but still it's something we can all go in for.
And when we come to the end of our lives, we'd like to know that people would say something about us, that we were like the Lord. Sometimes I shudder to think what they would think about me. When I go, some preachers, what they'll think about them, some they'll remember how hard they could shout, and things like that, or how much they danced around the platform.
But I know some things people might remember me by, but it would be nice if they could say, he could take us into the presence of the Lord, and teach us some little things about the Lord himself. Now, with that in view, we're not going to build a big porch and leave no time.
What about Abel? Well, there's one thing we find out about Abel, the death had to take place. And for you and I to be brought into blessing, the Lord Jesus had to go into death. But it says here, and I'm applying this, I hope not too far out, God testified of his gifts.
God bore witness to this man. How did he bear witness? Well, how did he bear witness to the Lord? Because Abel is a lovely little picture of the Lord. Cain's a picture, isn't he, of the nation of Israel, particularly, that slew the Lord.
And I used to wonder, when I read it as a boy, and how God put a mark on Cain, what did it all mean? God has put a mark on the nation of Israel, and he's going to bring them through, because Cain said, everyone that findeth me will slay me.
And I figured, if you're dead once, you're dead. But he said, everyone. And there's been hostility against the nation of Israel down through the years, but God has put a mark upon them, and he's going to bring them safely through.
But I thought, well, how did God bear witness to Cain? Well, excuse me, how did God bear witness to the Lord Jesus? He raised him from the dead. Isn't that wonderful, that the Lord was raised from the dead?
And then when we come to Enoch, he's characterized by his walk. It said he walked and he brought pleasure to God. Another little picture of the Lord Jesus. A man that walked with God and brought pleasure to God.
This is my beloved son, and whom I am well pleased. And what happened to this man, Enoch? Well, we all know he was translated, for he had this testimony that he pleased God. And then the Lord Jesus Christ brought infinite pleasure to the heart of God by going to the cross at Calvary.
What happened, he was taken up. And just as Enoch was taken up, we usually look at it as the rapture, but you'll allow me to say, the Lord was taken up, the ascension. So you have the resurrection, and then you have the ascension, and then you have Noah.
And here, another lovely picture of the Lord Jesus. He found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And I like to preach Noah at times. We preach, look at things differently, but as a picture of the Lord himself.
Only one man had found absolute grace in the eyes of the Lord. And he condemned the world. That's what the Lord did, and he was a preacher of righteousness. So you see, he preached so that people would become righteous.
That's why we would preach. I remember one time I was preaching in a tent, and my father was in the tent, and on the way home, he always liked to ask questions. And my friend preached with me, he preached about Noah.
And my father said, what do you think Noah really preached? Oh, I said, I thought that was easy. I thought, he preached why there's judgment coming, and you need to be ready, you need a way of escape.
Well, he said, isn't it strange that that's what it says. Enoch preached, behold, he cometh with ten thousand of his holy ones to execute judgment. So then I said, as I usually ended up saying, well, what did he preach?
He said he was a preacher of righteousness. What does it mean? It means that you can't just live any old way. They were living to please themselves. But he was saying, you can't live your life to please yourself, live your life to please God.
And while he was a preacher to those who were in their sins, the same principle applies today. Preaching should produce righteousness. People say, I like Christ exalting ministry. So do I. But I tell you, it's not so much how exalting it is when the preacher preaches it, but does it produce people that exalt Christ when the conference is all over?
It should be something that will be seen in our lives. Now, Abram, what did he do? Well, he left all his all his family. He went out not knowing whether he went. You say, how was that like the Lord? Well, you know, the Lord had an earthly family, but it was one day they came to him and they said their brothers and sisters and their mother there without, he said, who's my mother and who's my brothers and sisters?
It was a new family that was brought in the family as a spiritual family, not the natural family. So we have been brought into that relationship. And that's what the Lord came to do to bring us into our relationship with himself.
We have a father and we have a shepherd and we have a great high priest. We have an advocate. We have a head and and it's a, well, you could just keep going on and on. And then what about Sarah? We can't leave the sisters out.
You know what? She, she, she, she's the one that we learned subjection from. She had strength. But I was thinking of the scripture in first Peter, where it said that she was subject to her husband and she called him Lord.
Now my wife doesn't ever call me Lord. Lord Lavery sounds pretty good. I would say, but, and she's Lady Lavery, but, but, but, but, but I know she knows what headship is and we know what it is to work together.
It's not something that's not a, to be a dictator or anything like that. But you know, the Lord was so subject, wasn't he? It's not inferiority either way, but the Lord was subject to the father. So all these men and women of faith, there's something that would remind us of the Lord.
What about Isaac? Well, we read about Isaac. What does it say about him? It says he blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. And I thought of the Lord, you know what he said? There's another comforter that's coming.
I'm going to be taken, but don't, don't, uh, but we're not going to leave your orphans. There's going to be another comforter. We've heard about an advocate with the father. Well, the Holy Spirit is our advocate down here, isn't it?
And he deals with us and, uh, and the Lord maintains us in God's presence and so on. But of things to come, another comforter, you're going to receive the Holy Spirit. Not a wonderful thing that we're indwelt by the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit.
His desire is to guide us. We're not left to ourselves, but we're indwelt. We never would have had any desire to be in a place like this. I wouldn't. I'll tell you that before God saved me. I went to a few meetings, but I had to go on and I sat on and I listened reverently.
I used to go to a gospel hall, uh, gospel meeting in a gospel hall every Sunday night and in my later teens, my early twenties. And after the gospel meeting, I hightailed it to the other side of town.
It was a Catholic part. They didn't keep the Lord's day so well. And I'd be found dancing at a place called Fruit Hill way up where you wouldn't go today. You might end up with your head in your hand, but you wouldn't go there now.
But that was, I went to the meeting, but it didn't mean anything to me. But thank God I love to be with the Lord's people. I love to go to the conferences and not just for the fellows, but to hear the word and it's something we're all drawn together and drawn closer to the Lord.
This is what we, uh, we need. And then Jacob, how was he like the Lord? I like Jacob, you know, it says when he was a dying, bless both the sons of Joseph and worshiped leaning upon the top of the staff.
He was a pilgrim. That's what the staff is a symbol of the pilgrim. And here he is in weakness and he's worshiping. He wasn't always a worshiper, but be nice to end up that way. Wouldn't it be a worshiper?
And then the Lord brought worship to the Lord and brought worship to his God. And I shall worship the Lord, thy God and him only shalt thou serve. If you look at the parallel passage in Genesis and when Jake Jacob comes to the end of his life, it says he pulled his feet into the bed.
You know, I would like to have control of my feet right to the end. Or should I say maybe I'd like the Lord to have control of them. You know, when the Lord washed the disciples feet, I know there are a whole lot of ways and that's one of my favorite chapters, maybe in the whole Bible.
But there's one thing I heard a man say once that stuck with me. He said, you know, the disciples feet were in the Lord's hand. He said, what about your feet? What about my feet? Does he guide me in my pathway of his feet?
The Lord always had control of his feet, but Jacob just had control toward the end of his life. But here he is a worshiper and a pilgrim. And the Lord Jesus was a pilgrim down here. And what about Joseph?
Well, we don't need to say much about Joseph. We've heard about him. You know, he was the one that was going to reign. He's a beautiful picture, isn't he, of the Lord. One of the most perfect ones maybe there is in our Old Testament.
He wasn't perfect, but it was a tremendous example. He's going to reign. And we need to be reminded that we're going to reign with him. This old world's nothing. We're going to reign over this world. We're going to be with him.
And we're going to, we're the royalty of heaven. We should live that way. We're not spiritual hobos with a little bundle over our back, just traveling through this world. No, we're the royalty of heaven.
We're a holy priesthood in the sanctuary. We're a royal priesthood in the testimony. And this is what we need to remind ourselves. And then we come to Moses. What about Moses? Came from a palace to associate with the people of God.
No people like God's people. Choosing rather when he became of age, when he became great, refused rather, it says, to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. It says, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God and to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
I tell you, he was like the Lord, wasn't he? In many, many ways, how he interceded for the people and so forth. And willing to bear reproach like the Lord bore reproach. Wonder are we ashamed to bear reproach.
We never should be ashamed of the Lord. What did Paul say? Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of the Lord or of me as prisoner. He was a prisoner of the Lord, not a prisoner of Nero. He said, there's one that captivated my heart.
And it doesn't matter what transpires in this life. I want to be loyal to him. I'm his prisoner. The prisoner of the Lord. Now, what could we say about Rahab? I'm not sure, but I just want to leave you with this.
Rahab, she received the spies and she received the word of the spies. But I want to tell you about three things. I think I'm right in saying three things that Rahab had. She had a window and she had doors.
It just says doors. I'm not sure how many, but must have been two at least. The doors laid into the city, but I would take it the window was on the outside. And what was she doing after she had released the spies?
She's, I think she's looking out of the window. Because God said, you close the door. Jericho's a picture of the world under doom. And he said, you close the door to the world. That's what God wants us to do in all its aspects.
Close the door. But then she'd be looking out the window with a scarlet thread. What was she waiting for? She was waiting for the Lord's people, but I want to apply it this way. She was likely waiting to see the Ark of the Covenant.
I'm sure they told her about that. And they're going to bring it in that lovely blue cloth over it. Speaks of the heavenly man. The man that came from heaven. He said he came from heaven. I've gone back to heaven, John 13.
But you know he's coming back. The heavenly man is coming back. And when he comes back, I hope he'll find us with the doors shut to the world and the window open, waiting and anticipating the return of the Lord.
So may the Lord bless his word. And when we be like these people, not just don't just pick one of them to be like, but but all these little aspects and maybe you'll find others. But just to be more like the Lord Jesus Christ, occupied with him and waiting for his return and shutting the doors to the world and opening the window, as it were, and waiting for the Lord to come to take us to be with himself.