Divine Commendation Or Divine Condemnation? - [Hebrews 11:2-7]

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I wonder how many of you have received an award for something that you've done. Maybe a trophy or some commendation, a medal.
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I have not received many. I think in 1971, I won the punt, pass and kick championship in Omaha.
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And it was a fluke, I know. Since then, I don't think
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I've received too many awards or medals or trophies. But not getting awards isn't as bad as getting bad awards.
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I found some strange, bad awards that you don't want to get. One is the
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Lanterne Rouge, and it is the award given to a bicyclist that finishes last in the race.
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Some at the Tour de France try to get that on purpose when they know they can't win. There is a
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Stella Award. You do not want to get the Stella Award. Stella Liebeck successfully sued
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McDonald's for $2 .9 million because she spilled coffee on herself. And since then, they have an award for her,
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Stella. The most interesting one to me was the 2005 winner. He claimed, Christopher Roller did, that he claimed that he was
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God. And that the illusionist, David Copperfield, had stolen his supernatural powers to perform magic tricks.
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That was a bad award. I obviously thought that was funnier than you did. Darwin Awards, of course.
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After people die, they get the Darwin Award. And the one that I read this week was a lawyer who wanted to test the strength of the windows.
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Demonstrated how strong the window was by running at it full blast on the 24th floor. And the windows weren't strong enough to hold him.
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Big Brother Awards. They're called Lifetime Menace Awards for people spying on others.
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And the list goes on. But out of all the awards, all the attaboys, all the commendations that you could get, we're going to look at the one that ranks the highest.
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And turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11. The ultimate reward. The ultimate commendation.
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The ultimate well -done good and faithful servant. Hebrews chapter 11.
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As you know, we're in the book of Hebrews. Maybe you're visiting today. We're just marching through Hebrews, verse by verse, chapter by chapter.
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And we're in now what people call the Hall of Faith. If you had to summarize the book of Hebrews, it might be easy.
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If you look at Hebrews 10, 11 and following, talking about the Lord Jesus and how great
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He is and how much better He is than everything or everyone and everyone. Hebrews 10, 11.
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And every priest stands daily at His service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
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But when Christ, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins,
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He sat down at the right hand of God. That place of honor and victory and exaltation and dominion.
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Waiting from that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet.
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Everything in this book is pushing toward that. It's reminiscent of Psalm 2, at the end of Psalm 2.
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Do homage to the Son, lest He become angry and you perish in the way. For His wrath may soon be kindled.
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How blessed are all who take refuge in Him. And that's really what the writer wants. The writer wants you to have a right view of who
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Jesus is. It's easy to get distracted throughout the week and your view goes to everything else and everyone else.
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And you forget about the object of your faith, the Lord Jesus. And He wants to make sure it's settled in.
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This is the Lord Jesus in Hebrews. That's said in the book of Matthew. All things have been handed over to me by my
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Father. And no one knows the Son except the Father. And so everything that's existing in the universe.
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All authority, all power. From the winds and the waves to life and death. Demons, Satan, sicknesses.
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Jesus rules over all. And He wants us to get a good snapshot of that in the book of Hebrews.
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And so today we're going to be looking at Hebrews chapter 11. Reviewing verse 1 and then working our way down through about 7.
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Hopefully. The great part about verse by verse preaching is if I don't get through 7 today there's always next week.
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Lord willing. So we come to a book of the Bible. And the best thing we can do is try to frame it so we understand what the
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Bible says. We're after not what I think it means. You know, you've all been to those Bible studies where people sit around and they say,
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What does the verse mean to you? That's a very bad Bible study unless the leader is asking that question to see where the students are.
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The question is not what does it mean to me or what does it mean to you. I had a very old gruff professor once.
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And he said, Mike, what would this mean if you were dead? Meaning, it has a meaning outside of me.
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It means something even if I don't exist. It's not truth through me and then somehow it changes.
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No, it is the truth. It is divine revelation. God has spoken clearly. Unlike idols that you can see but don't talk,
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God you can't see but he does talk and he's spoken plainly. So what does the text mean?
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And when we come to a passage like this, we looked at a few interpretive helpers last week.
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And just for a quick reminder, in case you weren't here, how do we interpret Hebrews chapter 11?
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Remember last week we talked about context. No surprise there. This is a chapter that comes right after chapter 10.
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And do you see at the end of chapter 10, verse 38, But my righteous one shall live by faith.
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And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. Words that are very important for our passage today.
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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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And so what he's going to do in chapter 11 is he's going to give a list of people by the grace of God who have done what he's telling the readers, the listeners, you to do.
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We also notice that there's a figure of speech here in chapter 11. Notice how many times do the sentences start with,
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By faith, by faith, by faith. I think you'll count about 20 of those. By faith, by faith, by faith.
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Remember I asked you last week who could tell me what this word, figure of speech was, and nobody got it, but somebody did listen online, and they wrote to me and they said
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I owe them money. But I said you're not here to, you know, show up in person and I'll give it to you.
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We call this figure of speech anaphora. An anaphora is just something at the beginning of a phrase or a clause or sentence is said over and over and over for a melodic way to read it, a way that draws you in, a way that makes you remember it, and we remember this chapter, that figure of speech anaphora is really excellent.
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It is helpful. We also were urged by me, you were urged by me, to read carefully.
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Remember the text doesn't say by faithfulness, it says by faith. We were urged, you were urged by me to not just think somehow this is
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Abraham's faithfulness, David's faithfulness, Moses' faithfulness. No, this is faith in the
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Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the high priest, that's been talked about in Hebrews chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.
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We also remembered that when we come to a passage like this and when you think about your life, when you think about heroes of the faith, everyone except for the
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Lord Jesus falls into this category. Remember the Latin we learned last week? Anybody?
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Okay, some know. Simul justus et peccator. It's just a theological phrase, simultaneously just and sinful.
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How do we explain crazy sins done by supposedly godly people in the
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Bible like here in Hebrews 11? What explains that? What explains Paul in Romans chapter 7 who says,
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I don't do what I want to do and I need to be delivered from this body of death? And so we're realizing these people, while they did wonderful things, they're not the
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Savior. Only the Lord Jesus is the faithful one. John Knox, the great Scottish reformer said in light of this, and then we'll get to the text.
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Even after we are reborn, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth of God is not in us.
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It is therefore essential for us to lay hold on Christ Jesus in His righteousness and His atonement since He is the end and consummation of the law, and since it is by Him that we are set at liberty so that the curse of God may not fall upon us, even though we do not fulfill the law at all points.
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For the God, God the Father, beholds us in the body of the
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Son, Jesus. He accepts our imperfect obedience as if it were perfect and covers our works, stains, and blemishes with the righteousness of His Son.
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When I read Hebrews 11, in other words, I don't say to myself, I'm not as faithful as these people.
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I don't measure up to these people. I don't say to myself, you know what? God will accept me if I only live a life like Abel and Enoch and Noah and Moses and Abraham and Sarah.
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Friends, I have good news for you today. This is my job. By the way, in seminary, they'd always say, pastors, don't do the announcements.
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Let somebody else do the announcements. Scott Brown does a much better job of announcements than I do. Pastor, you don't need to do the announcements.
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Let somebody else. But I'm taking that job back. Sorry. No. This is my announcement time.
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I have good news for you. No matter what you've done this week, dear Christian, God doesn't accept you based on how well you perform because if you look at my life and I look at your life, we'll realize we haven't performed perfectly.
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Have we not or have we? No, we have not. And so this chapter, if you're not careful, you're going to not do what the next chapter says.
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And that is Hebrews 12 to looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
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Now, Hebrews 11, 1. Remember, we looked last week at this verse and it doesn't really give us a full definition of faith, but it gives us a partial definition, a rhetorical definition.
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What does faith look like in the life of Noah or Abraham? That's what he's after.
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He's not saying an exhaustive definition. He's just telling us what does it look like? And he uses two key words, does he not?
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If you have the ESV, those two key words that help explain each other, assurance and conviction.
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That's what faith looks like for these people in this list who back at the end of chapter 10 don't shrink back, who walk by faith.
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Two key words, assurance and conviction. And this is found in verse 1.
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Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for. That's the way we perceive things. We're confident, we're relying on who, we have this reliance on God and His steadfast love, and then we know
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His promises are true. And then we have conviction, or another way we could translate it, evidence.
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Now, faith is the assurance, our confidence, our reliance of things hoped for, thinking future, and present tense, the conviction of things not seen.
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We don't see things, but we know they're true. We don't see angels, we know they're true. We don't see
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God, we know He's true. We don't see promises fulfilled in the future yet, but we know those things are true.
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I love that story, by the way. I don't want you to turn there, but there's a great story in 2 Kings that reminds me so much of Hebrews 11, verse 1.
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And there's a big hubbub, and Elisha's getting chased, and there's this big siege, and Elisha's servant was all frazzled.
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And listen to what it says. When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city.
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And the servant said, Alas, my master, what shall we do? He said,
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Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. What do you mean by that?
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I don't see any army. Then Elisha prayed, O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.
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So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
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Very interesting. Elisha's not worried because he has the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
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That's what Johnson said. Elisha didn't have to see them. He knew them. And then Johnson said,
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It seems to me something like this is fundamental in the way we live as Christians. We have the promises of God.
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They are substance. Our faith is a substance of things that have given to us as promises of the
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Word of God. They can be trusted. And now we move to Hebrews 11, verses 2 -7.
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And how do I want to frame this this morning with an outline? Sometimes I don't do outlines.
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Sometimes I do. Here's the outline this morning for our passage. Three encouragements from Hebrews 11, 2 -7 designed to help you think properly about trials.
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How do I think through trials properly? And when I say trials, friends, I mean prosperity or adversity.
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Both are trials. Now remember the context here. These people were in trials. These people were getting persecuted.
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These people were on the run. How do I frame things rightly? I can't change my situation. I can't change my circumstances.
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I want them changed. I try to change them. But how do I frame things rightly?
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Three encouragements from Hebrews 11, 2 -7 to help you think rightly about trials.
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Number one, the first encouragement. It is possible for you to be commended by God.
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Number one, it is possible for you to be commended by God. What do I mean by that?
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Verse 2. Let's find out and why is that encouraging? Look at the text. For by it, faith, this faith that has assurance and conviction, for by it, the people of old, like the people we're going to read about in this list, receive their commendation.
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This is a very important word. This is why I started off the sermon asking if you've received commendation.
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Do you see in verse 4, through which he was commended as righteous,
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God commending him by accepting his gifts. Do you see at the end of verse 5?
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Now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. And then at the end, chapter 11, verse 39, an interpretive lens for this whole chapter, all these people we're going to talk about in the next few weeks, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised.
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I mean, can you imagine if God were to say to you, I commend you.
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Remember, I've talked to you before about somebody just telling me, I'm proud of you. Or maybe you've heard those words.
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I'm proud of you, son. I'm proud of you, daughter. How would you like to have the God of the universe, knowing that you know, he knows every closet, every skeleton, every sin that you've ever committed, every sin that you will commit.
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And he says, I commend you. How would you like to hear those words? I'm commended by God. If there's anything you want to shoot for in life is to hear those words.
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I commend you. What would it take? What does it take to hear God say to you,
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I commend you. And here we get the answer in Hebrews chapter 11.
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Now, it's strange to kind of think about this commendation, because guess what the world tells everybody. You're special.
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Everybody gets a red plate. We actually had a red plate at our house. Do we still have it? And if it's your birthday, you get the red plate.
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The world now, because of, you know, crazy sports and liberalism and all kinds of other things, when you are on a sports team, everybody gets a trophy.
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No wonder when I started off the sermon today, I did not remember that fact, because I had to earn trophies when
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I was a kid. But when I asked you, when's the last time you got a trophy, because you get one every time you go to school, right kids?
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Trophy for being the best of the best. But if everybody's the best, then what does that make? Well, everybody's special.
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And the only signal that we hear from many pulpits in evangelicalism and in liberalism is God loves you.
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Now, that's true. There's a gracious love of God for even the unbeliever.
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We call that common grace. And there's rain and moon and stars and taste buds and families.
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And God shows His love as creator. But they just throw it out without any meaning, and they don't understand that, and then the difference that God has a special love for His bride, just like if you're married, you have a special love for your spouse, and you might love other people, but not the same as your spouse.
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In a world that says, God commends you for being you, we don't think this is such a big deal.
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But when we think God is holy and we're sinful, how can God say, I commend you? I accept you.
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Well, there's two ways. How do you get commended by God? How do you receive, one translation calls it approval.
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How do you get approval from God? Two ways and only two ways to get approval from God. And one is called the legal way, and the other is called the gospel way.
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And since everybody here has a soul, and you'll report to God one day, and you'll stand before Him, you need to hear the words, well done, good and faithful servant.
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And you don't need to hear the words, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. There's only one way to avoid this, because the two scenarios
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I give you, justification by works, the legal method, is impossible. There's two ways to get to heaven.
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One's only theoretical, and it's justification by works. If you want to be commended by God, just obey
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Him. Just perfectly obey Him. That's all you have to do. But the problem is that we can't, because Adam's sin was credited to us, and we have something called now a sin nature.
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But theoretically, if you did perfectly obey Him, Romans 2 says, it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the what?
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Doers of the law will be justified. All you have to do to get to heaven, by doing good works, is to do them perfectly.
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Now, I think I may have said this before from the pulpit, I'm not sure, but what are those little marshmallow -y things that we get, that are animal -shaped, and it's around Easter time?
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See, people know peeps. People put ducks up here, behind here, and all I get is a peep. But you can't see what they give me back here.
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Peeps! You know, we say peeps like, you know, they're my people. I want to redeem that, and I want to redeem the marshmallow -y carbohydrates.
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If you want to get to heaven and be commended by God, certainly it's not going to be because you're disobedient.
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He's not going to commend disobedience because He's holy, and His law reflects that. But here's what He would commend.
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Peep. An obedience that is personal, entire, exact, and perpetual.
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That's what He desires. Here's the law. And by the way, James 2, verse 10 says, if you break one part of the law, you're held guilty for what?
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All the law. Remember the old scholars that would say, how many times do you have to spit in the king's face before he banishes you?
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So the way to be commended by God, the legal way, is summarized by Jesus in Matthew 5 .48,
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Therefore you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of God.
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And we know it can't happen because of Adam's sin. And we know it can't happen because why send
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Jesus if we could get to heaven the law way? If Christ dies needlessly, that's the shame of all shames.
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But there's another way to get to heaven, and that is the gospel way. This is my good news.
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This is why I make an announcement to you. No matter what your life is, no matter what you've done or will do, you can get to heaven not based on your obedience, but the obedience of another that you believe in.
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Do you see the text? It's faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it, not by their faithfulness, not by their works, not by their obedience, not disqualified because of their disobedience, no one would be in heaven.
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But by it, faith in the object of the Lord Jesus Christ, the people of old receive their commendation.
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No wonder Romans chapter 3 says, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
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These people are in here not because they were great people, but they're trusting in the great object.
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This gives hope for people that really realize how sinful they are on the inside. When I meet people, they tend to fall into two camps.
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They're honest with themselves, and they despair because they realize, how could
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God accept me? Or other people I meet, they're self -righteous. They kind of tune down a little bit of God's law.
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They don't make it as high. They don't make their sins so high, and so they can kind of bridge the gap. But for self -righteous people, unrighteous people, they focus on who the
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Lord is, the faithful one. That's the only hope for us to get to heaven. It's fascinating to me when
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I look at one of the confessions, how does faith justify a sinner in the sight of God? Answer, faith justifies a sinner in the sight of God, not because of those other graces which do always accompany it, or of good works that are the fruits of it, nor as the grace of faith, or any act thereof, were imputed to him for his justification.
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Listen, but only as it is an instrument by which he receives and applies Christ and His righteousness.
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You can just imagine, these people are tempted to go back to Judaism, and some have fallen into that temptation, and maybe they've tried to go back.
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And can you imagine if they said, you know what, I'm too sinful to ever be accepted by God. I started to turn back to Judaism, and now it's too late for me to turn around.
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Listen, sinful people, less than faithful people, have trusted in the Messiah, and they receive a commendation.
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And you know how these cultures in the East, and even in the East today, admire the elders, revere the elders, respect the elders, want to follow the elders.
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No wonder he says in verse 2, for by it people of old, thinking about the fathers who came before, they weren't perfect, but they trusted in the perfect one.
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This is not God will accept you if you're faithful like Moses. No, God accepts you based on the work of another.
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You're accepted by the Lord Jesus' works, because He perfectly, exactly, entirely, and perpetually obeyed the law.
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Now some of the different translations for the word commendation are approval, good report, or good testimony.
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And really, good testimony, or witness, is the best. To testify, to give witness to.
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This is where we get our word martyr, because martyrs give a good witness. These people gained approval.
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They were commended, not by other people, because those other people slammed them, those other people mocked them, those other people derided them, but commended by God.
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For you Greek students, this is a passive. They received their commendation. Somebody commended them, and who commended them?
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God. I mean, can you imagine on that day, I commend you. That is fascinating to me. I commend you from God Himself.
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He knows what I've done. It's wonderful news. What does
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God commend? Perfect obedience. Who does God commend? Only people that perfectly obey, or who trust in the one who does.
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Encouragement number one, how do I think through trials? One thing I don't have to worry about in this trial is, am
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I commended by God or not, because by faith alone I am. Number two, second encouragement from Hebrews 11, 2 -7, is your faith,
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Christian, is not blind or irrational. It is found in the person and work of Jesus, the high priest.
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This is more implied than found in the text, but I want to make sure we get it. You say, well, my faith's not very strong.
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Okay, but your faith is in the right person, then it's a strong object.
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Remember, when we think of faith, we must think of it as the opposite of works. Works don't contribute anything, therefore my faith doesn't contribute anything.
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Philippians says my faith is even a gift. My faith isn't the merit. I could ask you this question.
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Did my faith live a perfect life? Did my faith say no to Satan out in the wilderness?
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Did my faith feed the 5 ,000? I mean, the more I talk like this, the stupider it sounds. Did my faith die on a cross?
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Did my faith be raised from the dead? No. Faith is in our Savior, but we're trusting in the
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Savior. And by the way, it says by faith, not because of faith.
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That's a difference. Because I did something, I've earned God's favor? No, the favor is because of God who loves sinners.
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Jerry Bridges says, Faith is reliance entirely on the perfect obedience and sin -bearing death of Christ as the sole basis for our standing before God.
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Listen, good news. On our best days as well as our worst. I mean, really.
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If you said to me, I didn't have a good day yesterday, I didn't read the Bible, I didn't have my quiet time,
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I didn't do this, I didn't do that. If you weren't seen through the lens of Jesus' life and death, would that kind of day be commendable to God?
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Of course not. But since we're in Christ, He commends us because He commends His Son. Now, we might get disciplined for our disobedience, that's certain.
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But we don't get kicked out of the family. This is faith in the promises of God in the Lord Jesus. And now third encouragement, which is explicit in the text.
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You don't have to see God's promises to know they're true and will be fulfilled. It's possible to be commended by God, faith alone.
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That faith is in Christ Jesus alone. Number three, you don't have to see God's promises to know they're true.
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Now we come to one of the kind of wildest verses in this section. It doesn't seem to fit.
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I mean, it does. But first, Ron, before we get to all these names of people in this list, this hall of faith, this roll call of faith, why is this here?
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Verse three, this is odd. By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the
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Word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. Wait a second.
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There's not a person here. Why is this here? Let me give you a few reasons why verse three is here.
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And I'm not going to say because God wrote it. Of course, that's true. But God wrote verse three and He put it here. Why? Do you see the word universe?
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Do you have other translations besides universe? This is the ages.
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This is time, epochs, and everything in there. He's reminding them, by the way, this is the
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God who providentially rules over everything. He's made the universe, time, and space, and there's a progression.
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He said in Hebrews 1, verse 2, that the Son upholds the world by His mighty power and He's driving it.
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You don't think, dear Christian, when you're in the trial, these people are you. Chance, random, can't believe this happened.
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If I only would have done that. This accident, I should have done this instead. What if I would have done all these other things?
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God is in this persecution for these people. He's in the world, and He's driving it towards its goal.
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He's made the universe, and so I think He's trying to encourage them a little bit. He also does what good pastors do.
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He brings in the congregation. What does the text say? Verse 3. By faith, we understand.
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That's fascinating. He's including His original audience, and of course,
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He's including us as well. We're involved. They teach you in seminary when you're preaching, you just can't say,
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Abraham did this, Isaac did this, Jacob did that, Joseph did that, don't do this, do that.
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Well, we're going to learn from these examples, and He ties us in with the we. He wants to let the readers know they're involved.
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Drawing attention to their faith. I think there are other factors here with this.
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He's moving from greater to lesser. The text says the universe was created by the
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Word of God. How do you know that? Who was there? Was Richard Dawkins there? Oh no,
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I forgot. Christopher Hitchens was there. Oh, the writer of Genesis 1 -1,
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Moses, he was there, right? Not one of them was there. Is that proper
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English? None of them were there. It's auto -correct.
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By the way, do you ever talk to somebody and you're trying to explain a theological point, and then you have to correct your theology in the middle of your discussion?
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You correct your own theology. It's just the way of the world. If you can believe that God made the universe with His Word, divine fiat, ex nihilo, out of nothing, and He takes this globe and sets it out in the middle of nothing called space, you can believe all these other things.
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He moves from greater to lesser. Every time I pick up water and have to carry it, or the other day
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I was digging and I had to use some wheelbarrows, and I thought, this wheelbarrow full of dirt is so heavy.
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Any time I think of weight, I think of, how heavy must this universe be?
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And God puts it out in the middle of this world, rather. And He puts the world just hanging up in the middle of nowhere, and it just stays.
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I'm thinking, this is power. So what He's trying to do is saying, you know what? If you've got questions about Enoch or Noah or any of these others, those are minor questions compared to the big question.
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He created the world out of nothing, and don't you believe that? Something has to go through your mind because you're entering into a universe that exists.
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How did it get here? And for the Christian, we take God at His word. In the beginning,
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God created the heavens and the earth. That's why verse 3 is here, to draw us in, to show us the importance.
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I mean, no one was there at creation. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation, God said to Job? He was nowhere.
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P .S., the writer of Hebrews thinks Genesis is in the Bible. No good pastor is going to say,
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Genesis really isn't true. It's poetry. Don't take it this way. Don't understand it this way.
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We don't really need it. Let's just kick in. Maybe, well, I don't really like Genesis 1. I don't really like Genesis 2.
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There's a difference between Adam and Eve. Let's just kick in maybe Genesis chapter 3. No good pastor does that.
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This pastor doesn't do that. Beware of pastors who do that, discounting
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Genesis. Remember, our Lord Jesus could have said, Genesis is bogus.
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Don't read it. But he affirmed it, did he not? Yes, he did. That's kind of looking back in verse 3.
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But we're going to look forward as well with these three Bible people. And one is
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Abel. One is Enoch. And one is Noah. We don't have to see
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God's promises looking back in creation to know they're true. And now he goes to the forward side, looking forward, to make up a word, forwardly.
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The first one is Abel. And here's kind of chronological order, right? Abel, Enoch, Noah.
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The key is walking by faith in an object, the Messiah, forward looking.
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You're in a trial. You look forward to the future, the outworking plan of redemption.
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The opposite is unbelief. The ultimate opposite is apostasy. Forward looking example of faith, number one,
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Abel, found in verse 4. By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.
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Through which he was commended as righteous. Who commended him? Cain? No. God commended
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Abel by accepting his gifts and through his faith, though he died, still speaks.
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When it comes to worship and worshiping the right way, the way he's accepted is by faith.
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Now, we don't have the time to go through this list of all the scenarios behind this. But this is a typical wrong illustration.
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Abel gave a bloody sacrifice and the wages of sin is death. Without blood, it's impossible for forgiveness.
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Those last two statements, of course, are true. And Cain, he gave some kind of grain agricultural offering.
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And the reason why Abel was accepted and Cain wasn't is because this is a blood sacrifice and this isn't.
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Is that what the text says? What's the text say? By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice.
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The issue isn't blood or non -blood. The issue is take God at his word. Give me a sacrifice and make sure that sacrifice isn't just with blood or grain, but with your heart.
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Abel says, I'll do exactly what God says with worship because I'm going to trust his word. I'll take him at his word.
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And Cain says, I'm just going to be religious. I'll just throw God a few bones. I'll be rote when it comes to this.
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I'll be ritualistic when it comes to this. But I'm not going to give him my heart. That's the issue here.
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It's not, well, one is blood and one isn't. You remember the situation in Genesis.
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Now, Adam knew his wife, Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain saying, I've gotten a man with the help of the
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Lord. Remember, God promised through Eve the seed who would crush the serpent's head.
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And she thinks now, Adam thinks now, this is it. This is the baby.
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The Messiah has been born. But we know that's not true. And again, she bore her, his brother
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Abel. Now, Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time, Cain brought to the
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Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.
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And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he had no reward, no regard.
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So Cain was very angry and his face fell. And the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry and why has your face fallen?
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If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.
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Its desire is contrary to you. You must rule over it. Cain spoke to Abel, his brother.
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And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. And the
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Lord said to Cain, where is Abel, your brother? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?
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And the Lord said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.
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Here's the point. All these people, starting with Abel, were looking forward, trusting
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God, taking God at his word, were not involved with some kind of ritualistic religion.
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Romans 14 says, whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. And that's exactly what happened too.
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There's another character in the Bible, and I don't mean like shady character, but a Bible character, a real person, Enoch.
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You see it in verse 5 and 6. Enoch is so fascinating, is he not? Lots of people write about Enoch.
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By faith in the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, revealed to at that point, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death.
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He was not found. Why? Because God had taken him. Now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased
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God. How much obedience does that take? How much work does that take? And without faith, there's an and there in verse 6, as you know.
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Without faith, it's impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
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Can you imagine Enoch's living his life, and one day he's just translated into heaven?
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Here's what Genesis 5 says. By the way, Genesis 5, when I say to you Genesis 5, what goes through your mind?
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What's the theme in Genesis 5 over and over and over and over and over and over?
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Remember, the day you shall eat of it, you'll never die. Remember, Satan said that? And Genesis 5 is the punctuation part.
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And he died, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died. But Enoch, he didn't die.
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He went straight up to heaven. Genesis 5, when Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah.
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Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.
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Thus, all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
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Now, if you're not careful, you're going to say, if I just obey enough, God's going to just rapture me.
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Nobody else in the church will get raptured, but I will. No, you see that it's the faith chapter, faith in Messiah.
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How could Enoch please God? How can you be so pleasing to God that He just takes you? The answer has to be faith in an object.
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This is amazing. He escapes death altogether. Of course, we think about the ultimate way to escape death, but here,
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I find it fascinating. If you go to the Old Testament that's translated into Greek that this writer
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Hebrews would use, it says that Enoch was well -pleasing to God. He was well -pleasing to God.
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How can you be well -pleasing to God? So much so that, what's the text say again in Hebrews 11?
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That he should not see death. He was not found because God took him. By the way, he was not found.
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That means you can search all you want, high and low, and look around and look around and look around, and you have a thorough search, and you can't find him.
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Because God had taken him, the divine initiative. You look and look and look, you can't find him.
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Why? Because he took him to heaven. If Abel, as Andrew Murray says, is the sacrifice of faith,
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Enoch is the walk of faith. Walking, trusting who God is and what he has done.
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And verse 6 tells us a little bit about this. And without faith, that's not faithfulness.
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Enoch sinned. He had Adam's sin credited him, and therefore he was a sinner. But we see this man trusting in God, the triune
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God, and without this faith, it's impossible to please him. Why? Because the only other way to please him is perfect obedience.
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For whoever would draw near to God must believe this. What? That he exists and that he rewards.
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You have to believe that about God to draw near to him. The text is very clear.
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You have to believe that God exists. This sounds like Exodus 3 .14. God said to Moses, I am who
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I am. You have to believe in this eternally existing God. By the way, that blows my mind.
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Is it not yours? An existing God from all eternity. So often we just default to this prime mover, first mover, first cause.
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This is the eternally existing God. And then you also have to believe that he rewards those who seek him.
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Did you know that seeking the Lord regularly in the Psalms is describing a person who trusts
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God's promises, who relies on God, who sees
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God as his ultimate satisfaction. That's what Enoch did. Without faith it's impossible to please him, but with faith it's possible to please him.
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And then we have our third character, and we're going to have to end there. Noah. Let's go back and see
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Noah found in verses... just found in verse 7. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household.
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By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Forward -looking faith of Enoch and now of Noah.
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Now I know you know the story. And by the way, whenever I see a little child's... what are those things that hang above little cribs?
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A little... what? I was going to say a maze. I remember we got one for one of the kids. It was black and white and had these structures.
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It's supposed to make the kids all smart and everything. You can determine if that worked or not.
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And I see, you know, Noah and some animals and all that stuff. I'm thinking,
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Noah's ark. Listen, it never rained. I don't know if Noah had ever seen the ocean.
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I don't think he's ever seen a boat. And now he's told to build an ark. And for 120 years, you can imagine the hurling abuse and the catcalls and the mocking and all these other kind of things figuring out this crazy lunatic
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Noah. But what does the text say? By faith, Noah being warned by God concerning events as yet seen.
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He knew something was coming. He knew the flood was coming. And as Calvin said, he stood unbending among so many mockeries.
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And when it comes to faith, we say to ourselves, there are warnings we take by faith. There are promises we take by faith.
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There's a future. Now, put yourself in the shoes of these listeners, these first recipients. Troubles, trials, persecutions, losing homes, prisons, and maybe going to die one day for your faith.
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We're looking forward to promises of God. That's what Noah did. And God proved
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Noah right. That's what Enoch did. That's what you should do. You said, well, I've got all these trials coming into my life.
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This is how you walk. The just shall live by faith. You walk by faith and not by sight.
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Faith in the Lord Jesus. Forward -looking faith. That's what Noah had.
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I mean, I would have just said, this guy is absurd. Okay, I'm going to try to be very careful when
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I say this. Whether you like the Ark experience, what city is it in?
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Where they've got the replica of the Ark? Ohio or something? Kentucky.
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Okay, what's the difference? Kentuckiana, right? People get mocked for rebuilding it.
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Ken Ham and the whole group are just mocked tremendously for them trying to make a replica of this thing as big as a battleship, a couple of football fields long.
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They mock and insult him just for that. And it's rained before here.
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We know what ships are like. How much worse do you think it was back in those days?
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But my righteous one at the end of chapter 10 will live by faith. That's what you're called to do, even though you can't see.
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Like, I'm in the trial, but I know the promises of God are true. I know heaven's real. I know forgiveness is true.
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I know that justification happened to me now, and God is not going to change my justification when it comes to heaven.
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It's just going to be a vindication of my justification. No condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Jesus even used
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Noah to warn people for his return. How do we know Jesus is going to return? I have a forward -looking faith because I know
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God is true, His promises are real, and I'm going to trust in Him and what He says. Abel, one writer said, paid the price of his life for his faith.
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For Enoch's faith, he was taken from this life, and by faith,
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Noah saved his own family's life. Noah. How about let's reread verse 6 in light of verse 7.
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Without faith in the Messiah, it was impossible for Noah to please
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God. Without faith in the Messiah, it was impossible for Abel to please
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God. Without faith in the Messiah, dear Christian, it's impossible for you to please
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God. But when you do believe in God, that is well -pleasing. Ray Stedman always kind of had a way with words in his
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California 60s style. We may rightly visualize the mockery and jeering which Noah must have faced as he built a huge ship.
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He was a hundred miles from the nearest ocean with a ship many times too big for his own needs. And when he had finished, he filled it with animals.
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Had he lived in our day, he would have been dubbed Nutty Noah. Well, that was 40 years ago when
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Stedman wrote that. Psychotropic Noah, maybe we'll call him that or something, who knows. No way.
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By faith, by faith, by faith. So dear Christian, you struggle with life. It's a forward -looking.
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I did some study this week on the word attaboy. Anybody ever say to you attaboy?
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Kim told me she was told maybe by her grandpa. Oh no, by Aunt Jeannie, attaboy girl, attaboy.
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I found out when attaboys originated, 1909.
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It was baseball slang. That demonic sport. And it was slang and short for, that's the boy.
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That's the boy. And so when a batter would get up instead of saying, hey batter, batter, swing, you'd say, that's the boy, trying to encourage him along.
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That's the boy. Some would say, describing themselves,
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I'm the boy for this. I'm the boy for that. I can do it. I'm willing. I'm capable.
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And then the internet says, variant pronunciation of that's the boy, a cry of encouragement, especially to children and pet dogs.
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Say I'm going through a trial. Not doing very well. Got some ups and downs.
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Kind of anxious. Not living like I'm supposed to. I've asked the
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Lord to forgive me. But I don't have anybody else to trust. I'm trusting in the
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Lord. I know He's true. I know His promises are true. I know He'll never leave me or forsake me.
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And in that kind of weak faith, that struggling faith, still having a right object, friends, because of Jesus, you are commended.
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I commend you, every Christian here, through the words of Scripture. God commends you.
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God finds favor with you. God approves you. And I wouldn't go so low to say
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God says, add a boy, because that's the boy is all referred to the
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Son, the Lord Jesus. Because the Father sees you within the
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Son. You have His righteousness draped on you like a robe. So when the Father sees you,
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He doesn't see weak faith. He doesn't see struggling faith. He doesn't see anxiety faith. He doesn't see faith that doesn't live up to the profession of faith.
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He sees the Lord Jesus' faithfulness. I think that's good news.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank you for Hebrews chapter 11. And if we could get so much encouragement from hearing a dad or mom say,
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I'm proud of you. To think about the Son, the Lord Jesus.
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This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. We never did any of the things the
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Son did. When He was tempted, He didn't succumb. When we're tempted, we do. But you see us,
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Father, in the Son. And so because of the Son, the Lord Jesus, our risen Savior, we stand well pleasing to you.
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And the wonderful news is that can never change. Because you don't change your mind. And once you declare a person righteous, he's always righteous.
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She's always righteous. And so we're thankful for that. Thank you,
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Father, for the commendation that we have, that these men in the Bible had, and women like Sarah, based on the work of the
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Son. Help us live in light of that this week. And help us to encourage others and see trials rightly.