Hebrews 11 | Faith

Again, it's good to stand before the people of God. We return your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. This will be our focal. We'll look at this as a ho today. Let's pray. Father, Lord, we come to you and we worship you in Trinity and in unity, asking you to give us peace.

Lord, you have made peace with us through the blood of your son, Jesus Christ. And help me as I speak to your people to correctly articulate that. Be with us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So the theme of the book of Hebrews chapter 11 is faith.

And we've been walking through this and we see that it's speaking about the obedience of faith. And it's coming off of the coattails of what I've pointed out several times in chapter 10, verse 11. I mean, chapter 10, verse 37, excuse me.

37 through 39. It says, for yet in a little while, the coming one will come. This is speaking of the last judgment when you look at where it's quoted from in Isaiah. The coming one will come and will not delay.

But my righteous one shall live by faith. And that's a quotation from Habakkuk chapter two. So verse 38 again. But my righteous one shall live by faith. Oh, sorry. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their soul. So again, the main thing that Hebrews 11 is focused on is the righteous shall live by faith, a quotation from Habakkuk two four.

We'll read that again. Habakkuk says, behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright within him. Meaning there's something wrong. There's something wrong with us, with mankind. With all men, everyone that has ever been born outside of Jesus Christ.

His soul is puffed up. It is not right within him. But he makes a declaration, but that the righteous shall live by faith. Romans one 16 and 17 says, Paul speaking, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it, speaking of the gospel, which is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, the power is the power of God for salvation, and that it's to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For the righteousness of God, which is the gospel, is revealed from faith for faith. Meaning it's, you know, when you believe, it's the gospel that gives you this faith to believe, and it's for the faith.

You live in the out, and we see that as it is written, the quotation from Habakkuk, the righteous shall live by faith. The for faith, the from faith, for faith. That if you truly believe, you live it.

And we looked at that, it's the evidence. The life that you live is the evidence of what you say you believe. And also it's quoted in Galatians chapter three, verse 11, which says, now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law.

So can you be justified before God by the law? And the answer is no. Paul says, now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. And verse 12 of Galatians chapter three gives us the conclusion which says, but the law is not of faith.

Rather, the one who does them shall live by them. If you do the law, you are required to live by the law. It's not by faith. This is what's projected upon the Hebrew people. They were given this law. Our writer seems to make a contrast, a Moses versus Jesus.

And again, we've read it, we've walked through it, we see him identify it in chapter three, verses one through six, chapter three, verses one through six. He says, therefore, holy brothers, you who share in the heavenly calling, consider Jesus.

So he's painting Jesus over Moses, the apostle and the high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all of God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more glory as the builder of the house has more glory or honor than the house itself.

For every house is built by someone, and the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in God's house, listen right here, as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later.

Now here's the later, Christ, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son, not a servant, a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hofess our confidence and our boasting and hope. The old covenant is a representation of Moses.

New covenant Jesus, John chapter one, verse 17, for the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. I know every one of y 'all in here can preach this, right? We've been walking through this.

The writer has been hammering this. Like he's just been boom, boom, boom, hammering this whole thing about the law and how we're to, you know, not do away with Moses, but what we are to do is we are to receive Jesus.

What he has is greater than what Moses offered. Samuel Renehan, again, I mentioned him in Sunday school, has a quotation speaking of the analogy of the church in Israel. I think in the reform, there can be some, you know, like we kind of, you know, most people that claim reform theology, we kind of see things the same, but there is some differences here and there.

And as the Reform Baptist, Covenant Baptist, we would say that the church is the eschatological Israel, right, we're the eschatological Israel. We were who Israel was pointing to. We would say that Israel was a type of the church and that the church is the anti-type.

And so Samuel Renehan explains it as a way of scaffolding and building. He would say Israel was the scaffolding and the church is the building and that the Israelite people were the scaffold workers, right, they were constructing this building, right?

They were the ones that were working on this building and that the scaffolding and the scaffold workers are distinct from the building. The building is not the scaffolding, the building is not, the builders are not the scaffold, nor are they the builder.

But he says, here's the main thing of it being the eschatological, that the workers, those who were working on the building, unlike most workers who are building buildings, you drive downtown or whatever, you see the scaffolding, you see the workers, and then you have this great building that they're working on, the workers are invited to enter the building to stay.

And he pens that as the church, the new covenant, right? The Israelites who were building this building, once the new covenant came, they were invited to enter into the new covenant. And that's what the book of Hebrews is about.

Galatians speaks about it as well. Jesus brought the new covenant, you can exit, you can let go of the guardian and you can cling to Jesus. You can let go of the old covenant system and you can cling to Jesus Christ and the new covenant.

And so in our text today, again, we're gonna to do an overview and we're gonna walk away from it because mainly because it's telling the same story from here on out, it has to do with the land promises.

And so instead of breaking down each person and how it'd be kind of like preaching the same sermon each time using a different name, because the ending is the same, it's about the land. But I'll specifically focus on a very few verses towards the end, verse 39 and 40.

So bear with me as we walk through this, we'll begin in verse one and where there's commentary needed, I'll give just a little bit. Verse one, chapter 11, now faith is the insurance. We looked at it as it's the substance of things hoped for, the conviction or the evidence of things not seen.

For by it, speaking of faith, the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe, this is probably the most important verse in this, the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Remember, it's the visible that gives evidence to the unseen. And this is the whole idea where we're coming at this as your life, your living by faith is the evidence that you say you believe. By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, though he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gift and though, through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death and he was not because God had taken him. Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. Now the question is, well how does someone please God?

Verse six, and without faith, it is impossible to please him. The only way to please God is faith for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and he rewards those who seek him. Now, last week we spoke on Noah.

By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen and Reverend Freer constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this, he condemned the world. By him building this ark, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Now right here, we're gonna be entering into the land promises. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going.

By faith, he went to live in the land of promise as a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of those of the same promise. For he was looking forward to a city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God.

By faith, Sarah herself received power and conceived when she was past the age. Since she considered him faithful who had promised, therefore, from one man and him as good as dead, speaking of Abraham was 100, he's aged, 100 years old, were born the descendants as many as the stars of the heaven and as many as, and as numerable as the grain of the seashore.

So this is hyperbolic speaking right here. These all, speaking of Abraham and Sarah, his descendants, which we'll continue to read on, these all died in faith, not receiving the things promised. But having seen them and guarded them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers in exile on earth.

For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land, speaking of Canaan, from which that they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

But as it is, they desired a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared for them a city. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered Isaac and he who had received the promises that his descendants are gonna fill the earth, was in the very act of offering his only son of whom it said through Isaac shall your offspring be named, he considered that God was able to even raise him from the dead, from which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

By faith, Isaac invoked a future blessing on Jacob and Esau. By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the Exodus.

He knew what was coming, right? Of the Israelites, how did he know? Through the prophecies that God had directed concerning his bones. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ, Moses considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

What's the reward? The land that he did not get to enter. By faith, he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who was invisible. By faith, he kept the Passover, sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

By faith, the people crossed the Red Sea on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.

By faith, Rehab the prostitute did not perish when those who were disobedient, with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David, of Samuel, and the prophets, who through their faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, women received back their dead by resurrection.

Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with sword.

They went about in sheepskins and goats, destituted, afflicted, and mistreated, of whom, listen, the world was not worthy. Wondering about in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, the land, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.

Abel sacrificed in faith, Enoch walked with him, with God in faith, Noah obeyed in faith, Abraham believed and obeyed in faith, Sarah received in faith, Isaac waited in faith, Jacob lived in faith, Joseph endured hardship in faith, Moses stood against the nation of Egypt in faith.

Rehab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets, men and women who obeyed, sacrificed, went to war, worshiped, and led the people of God in faith. How? Why? Because they believed that God exists.

And when you believe God exists, you live like it. What the earthly kingdom people were looking for was the one thing that they could not keep, and that is the land. Abraham was promised the land of Canaan, Genesis 12.

If you want to turn there, I'm just gonna read it real quick. Chapter 12, verses one through three, the Lord's speaking here, now the Lord said to Abraham, go from your country and your kindreds and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse.

And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Jump down to verse six. Abraham passed through the land at the place of Shechem to the oak of Morah. And at that time, the Canaanites were in the land, the land of Canaan.

The Canaanites were in the land. And the Lord appeared to Abram and said, to your offspring, I will give this land. So he built, Abraham built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. Abraham was promised the land.

Abraham lived in the land, but he did not possess the land. Go to chapter 13. We see that he settled there. Abraham, chapter 13, verse 12, Abraham settled in the land of Canaan. Right, and it tells us that while Lot was among the cities and the valleys and he moved his tent as far as Sodom.

But when you get to chapter, so chapter 13 tells us that he settled there, but when you get to chapter 20, it tells us that Abraham leaves Canaan and he journeys to Nagab to live. And you go back to our text, Hebrews chapter 11, if you see verse 15 and 16, he says, for they were, it shows them settling there, then it shows them leaving in chapter 20.

And that's where this kicks in. For if they had been thinking of that land, speaking of Canaan, from which they had gone out, verse 20, chapter 20 tells you they'd gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

But as it is, they desired a better country. Abraham was looking for something better than Canaan, that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God. For he has prepared for them a city.

Abraham knew that something better than the land promised was coming. He says, if he was looking to that, he could have went back, but he doesn't. He sees something better in the horizon. Abraham and Sarah have their promised son, Isaac, and from Isaac comes Jacob, and through Jacob comes the 12 tribes of Israel.

The 11th son of Jacob is Joseph. And we looked at this in Sunday school because of the dream of Joseph, where his mother, father, and his brother are depicted as sun, moon, and stars bowing down to him.

His brothers, in a jealous rage, sell him into slavery. And even in Sunday school, we pointed out that this, however, was God's ordained plan to save many peoples from the famine. And also, it's how we see the Hebrew people go into slavery and where we're able to see the faith of Moses stand before the kings and nations of Egypt.

Right, everything's been, Hebrews 11 is showing how everything is playing out. And now the people that Moses leads out of Egypt from that slavery, this people, this captive people, this is the people who are supposed to receive the land that was promised to their father.

And the writer of Hebrews uses the story as an exposition of the people who he's dealing with, but he uses Psalm 95. And we see that take place in Hebrews chapter three, beginning in verse seven. So this is his, he's speaking to his audience, but he's comparing them to those that were in the wilderness, that were led out by Moses.

And he says, therefore, the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, speaking of that people in the wilderness, on the day in the wilderness, the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers, who were supposed to enter that land, they put me to test and saw my works for 40 years.

Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said, they always go astray in their hearts. They have not known my ways. As I was sworn in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Take care, so now the writer is telling his listeners, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil and unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God, but exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, for we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold to our original confidence, firm to the end, as it is said, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart, as in the rebellion.

For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not those who left Egypt, led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned and whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. The writer gives this example of a people who were not living in faith.

Moses living in faith, the people that he was leading out were not living in faith. They were looking back to Egypt. Moses dies, so do all that generation of people. Joshua's chosen to lead the earthly kingdom people of God into the promised land, and he does, right?

We read that in the book of Joshua. It speaks about it, it talks about rehab, it talks about the cities of Jericho and how they danced around and the walls fell, that they had some kind of rest given to them as they entered that land.

And you see that when you look at Joshua chapter 21, and this is a real good text for anyone who believes that God still owes promises to Israel. They might say, well, God hasn't fulfilled the promises he made to Israel.

Take them to this text, Joshua chapter 21, verses 43 through 45, it says this. Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to their fathers, and they took possession of it, and they settled there, and the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he swore to their fathers.

Listen, not one of their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given them all their enemies into their hand. Verse 45 is key. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord made to the house of Israel had failed all came to pass.

They entered the land. Not the land, I mean, not the people who rebelled, but their children enters the land. They're given some kind of rest. God fulfills that promise that he gave to the fathers. And the writer of Hebrews continues in chapter four of Hebrews to speak about the rest given to them in Joshua versus our rest in Christ.

So let's go back to chapter four. Therefore, while the promise still remains to enter his rest. Hold on, but they entered Canaan. They had rest in Joshua. How is there another promise? So the writer, he's building up to something greater.

They had the land of Canaan. They entered the promised land. God gave them everything that he promised to give them. But right here, he says, therefore, as the promise of entering his rest still stands.

That means that there's something greater. It's that land that Abraham, when he left, he wasn't looking back to Canaan. He saw something greater. It says, therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear, at least any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united with faith of those who listen. For we who have believed enter that rest. So you enter this rest by believing.

As it is said, as I have sworn in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest, although his works were finished before the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all of his work.

And again, in this passage, he said, they shall not enter my rest since therefore, it remains for some to enter. And those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience. Again, he appoints a certain day today, saying through David long afterwards, and the words already quoted, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

Right here. For if Joshua had given them rest, we just read that they had rest. Joshua 21, it said that they had rest. For if Joshua would have given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.

So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rest from his works just as God did. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience, by unbelief.

The people of God ultimately entered and possessed the land, but they did not have rest. Why? Right, that's the question. They have it. All their enemies are being defeated. Why do they not have rest?

And the answer is the law. The law kept them from rest. In order to keep the land, you had to keep the law. He gives them what he promises, but he gives them a law, and he says you have to keep this law to stay in the land.

And because they could not keep the law, they did not have rest. Galatians 3, again, verse 11 and 12. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith.

But the law is not of faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them. Deuteronomy 4, verse one. And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and to do them that you may live and go and take possession of the land that the Lord God your Father has given to you.

Chapter eight, verse one. I'm gonna go through these real fast. The whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do. The whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do, listen, that you may live and multiply and go and possess the land that the Lord has given to your fathers.

Chapter 30, verse 19 and 20. I have, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curse. Therefore, choose life that you and your offspring may live.

Loving the Lord your God, obeying his will, and being faithful to him, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you. I have set before you life and death, Therefore, choose life that you and your offspring may live.

Loving the Lord your God, obeying his will, and when Moses had finished speaking all the words to all Israel, he said to them, take heart the words by which I am writing to you, that you may command them to your children that they may be careful to do all the words of this law.

Verse 47, for it is no empty words for you. But your very life, and by this word, you shall live long in the land that the Lord your God is going over the Jordan to possess. Over and over in scripture concerning the law, we see do this and live.

The law is the imperative. Anytime that you hear it's a command, do this and live. In order for them to be in the land, they had to keep the law. Keep the law and live, it's an imperative. The statutes and the rules given to the Israelites were tied to the land.

In order for them to have rest, they had to keep the law to live in the land. They couldn't keep the law, they had no rest. And one of the greatest evidence of God's grace today is that the statutes and rules given to Moses do not tie us to the land.

Those statutes and rules do not tie us to the land. That's one of the greatest gifts of the new covenant. They are not the transcendent law. I repeat, it's not the 10 commandments. I'm not speaking of the 10 commandments, the 10 words.

Everyone, not just the Jews, are under the 10 commandments. That's a transcendent law. But they were given laws that they had to keep in order to live in the land. The statutes and rules, the scriptures call them.

The Israelites, the earthly kingdom people, were not able to keep the law, and because they were not able, from scripture and history, we see that they were removed. Now you might say, but they're back in their land now.

And I agree, but it's no longer, that land is no longer tied to the law. They can live there for 1 ,000 years, breaking all the laws they want. They won't be removed from it again by that because the land is no longer tied to the law.

Why? Because of the new covenant. It's in Jesus. Joshua 21, verse 43 tells us that he has fulfilled, I mean, 21, verse 45, not one word of the, not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had fell, but all come to pass.

So like I said earlier, in that analogy, the Jewish people, the Israelites, they can enter into the new covenant, the kingdom of God, by faith in Jesus Christ. Or they can still walk around in their scaffolding clothes.

They're free to walk into the building. But the only way into the building is faith in Jesus Christ. And we see that, that is what the writer of Hebrews is speaking about. The problem is with the people that he is speaking to, they have, not all of them, but some of them have the same faith as the generation that left Egypt, which is they say they believe, but they were not living in faith.

Their life was not matching their profession. And so the writer is pointing to, he is pointing them to their fathers and how their fathers lived by faith. So this was to be their model to those who were to live for God by faith, because the righteous shall live by faith.

And so again, we see in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 26, this speaking of Moses. It says, of Moses, he considered the reproach of Christ's greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt. For he was looking to the reward, and that reward was the land.

But notice what it says. Considered Christ, Moses did not enter the land. He did not receive what was promised. But ultimately Moses will receive what was promised because he lived in faith. And it's by faith we ultimately enter in to what was truly promised, a land whose foundation is built by God.

Notice what it says. I want to kind of go through it again. He considered the reproach of Christ greater, greater wealth and treasures of Egypt. For he was looking for the reward. Christ Jesus was made perfect in suffering.

Remember we read that in Hebrews. We went over it, we exegeted it. We don't have time to go through that right now. Christ Jesus was made perfect through suffering, right? Christ Jesus was made perfect through suffering so that you and I and Moses can be made perfect in Christ.

The writer is telling us that Moses was looking to Jesus Christ. Now we don't read that in the Old Testament, but this is what the apostle is telling us. The writer was, he was looking to Christ. He was looking to a reward which he would have saw as the land.

The writer is saying that the ultimate reward is Christ. It's Christ. And he was made perfect in suffering so that we can be made perfect. And again, we talked about that in Sunday school. Ultimately, let's go, chapter 11, 39 through 40.

Again, this picks up on the land. All these, and it picks up on the perfect. All these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised. Again, speaking of the land. Since God had provided something better for us that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.

And this is speaking of Christ. So Christ was made perfect in suffering and in order for us to be made perfect, we have to be in Christ. Ultimately, the Bible has one story. And this is the story that if you come here week after week, you'll hear it week after week.

And if I get to a point where I stop telling the story, please remove me from the pulpit. The story of redemption. Mankind has broken God's law. Just like the Egyptian, I mean, just like the Jews, we have broken God's law.

But I'm speaking right now specifically of the transcendent 10 words. We have broken God's law. But ultimately, for the story, it's speaking about the Jews who have broken God's law. They have been removed from their land.

They cannot keep their land. They do not have rest. Mankind has broken God's law. So God, in place of man, keeps the law and pays their fine. Galatians 3 .16 tells us that Jesus is the fulfillment of the offspring that would inherit the land.

We read about this earlier. Genesis 12 .7, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to your offspring, I will give this land. So he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. And then when you look at Galatians 3 .16, Paul says, now the promises were made to Abraham, speaking of chapter 12, verse seven, and to your offspring, it does not say to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one and to your offspring, who is Christ.

Paul sees that this promise was made to be fulfilled, was given to Christ. No one was worthy to take the land because of sin. The law was evermore before them. Listen, I'm standing before you now preaching, and guess what?

My sin is evermore, like I'm telling you, it hangs out right here, right? As I'm speaking to you, everything I've done in my life, just chilling, mocking me, pointing fingers, keeping me humble, right?

It's evermore before them. The law was evermore before them. They had to keep it. No one was worthy to get the land because of sin. The law was evermore before them. Sin is breaking the law. They were unable to keep the law because of sin, so no one could truly take possession of the land.

That is until Jesus, the one to whom the promise was made. Remember the indicative, do this and live. That's the indicative. I mean, excuse me, that's the imperative. The imperative is do this and live.

The indicative is what Jesus has done for you. It is finished. So the supremacy of Jesus Christ, which is the book of Hebrews, is dedicated to is Him keeping the law and earning the land. The sufficiency of Jesus Christ, which is what this book is dedicated to, is Him paying our fine by suffering in our place.

We could not keep the law. We deserve punishment. Christ comes, keeps the law, and takes our punishments. You and I, when we were born, we were born in Adam. We are born under original sin. We carry the dust of Adam, and because of that, we cannot keep the law.

You cannot, listen, I don't care how hard you try, you cannot keep the law because you're in Adam. You're born in sin. As soon as you're born, you're already toast. Can't keep it. You have an earthly father, an earthly mother.

You're born covered in dust. You cannot keep the law. Jesus Christ is both God and man, and as deity, He is the Son of the living God, and as to His manhood, He is the Son of Mary. So since Jesus wasn't born of a natural birth, meaning He was not begotten by Joseph in time, He therefore was not born in Adam, nor under the curse of Adam.

Therefore, He, Jesus, is the only one who can keep the law. So as long as you have both earthly parents, earthly mother, earthly father, you can't keep the law. Jesus comes, born of the virgin, right?

He does not have an earthly father. The Holy Spirit comes down upon Mary. She conceives. He is God of God, light from light, true God of true God. The God-man Jesus Christ takes on flesh. He doesn't become a man.

He takes on flesh. He adds two. He is able to keep the law. What are we called to do? Keep the law? No, we're called to live in faith. We're called to live by faith, trusting in Jesus Christ, what He has done, and living a life that mimics what we say we believe.

So if you are a Christian, that means you have been justified by faith. You have the imputed righteousness of Christ added to your account, and you have been made perfect in Christ. And if that's true of you, which I hope it is, the life that you live will be evidence of what you profess with your mouth.

Now, go back to Hebrews chapter one. I mean, excuse me, chapter 11, verse one, where it says, now faith is the assurance. You want assurance of your salvation? Look at your life, right? It's the assurance.

What you say you believe. Faith in Christ is your, excuse me, I said that wrong. Faith in Christ is your assurance. The evidence of your assurance is the life that you live. Please forgive me, I said that wrong in the beginning.

Faith in Christ is the assurance. Christ is the substance. Your faith in Christ is the substance. Your faith in Christ is the assurance. I wanna make sure I say it right. The evidence of your living your life in faith is the evidence of what you say you believe.

There's no assurance in the life that you live. The assurance is in Christ. The evidence of what you say you believe is in your life. Again, the visible is the evidence of the invisible. So real quick, verse 10, we looked at this earlier.

I just wanna cover it real quick. Verse 10, speaking of Abraham, it says, for he was looking forward to a city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. Turn to 2 Corinthians. Josh read this earlier.