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The following program is a production of
Truth For The World.
♪ "Sitting at the feet of Jesus,
oh what words I hear Him say." ♪
Last time we read through verse seven of Hebrews chapter 11.
We saw how that Abel was faithful. Why?
Because he did what God said to do.
He believed God.
We saw how Cain believed in God.
But he showed he did not really believe God,
because he did not do what God said do,
and his faith was not good enough.
We saw Enoch who walked with God,
he continued to walk with God,
and he lived and he pronounced judgment upon the land.
He was found faithful to God, because he did what God said.
And then we looked at Noah.
We saw that Abel offered.
Enoch walked.
Noah built.
They were all faithful,
not only because they had a belief in God,
but because they did what God said to do.
Now I want to say a couple more things about Noah
that we did not mention last time.
He was one of the men of old,
those elders mentioned in verse 2.
Hebrews11:7 says,
"By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet,
"moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house;
by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the
"righteousness which is by faith."
If he had not built the ark, he would have been unrighteous.
Our righteousness is based on our faith,
but we are not righteous until we do what God says do.
Turn to James 2:21-22.
"Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works,
"when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?"
Here is the Father of the Faithful.
"Seest thou how faith wrought with his works,
and by works was faith made perfect?" Complete.
A faith that does not obey, is no faith at all.
It is an incomplete faith.
James 2:23 reads,
"And the scripture was fulfilled which saith,
"Abraham believed God,
"and it was imputed unto him for righteousness:
"and he was called the Friend of God."
Notice when was that statement made?
"Abraham believed God."
When was that statement made?
It was not made until after he offered Isaac on the altar.
He believed in God before that,
but he did not believe until he did what he was told.
Continuing in James 2:24:
"Ye see then how that by works a man is justified,
"and not by faith only."
These men had faith
that led them to do what God said for them to do.
"By faith," verse 7 starts "By faith,"
Then it ends with "By faith."
And sandwiched between "by faith" and "by faith"
are the actions that Noah did according to faith.
There are so many people in the denominational world
who talk about their faith.
Well truth be told, they have faith in faith,
rather than faith in God.
When we put our faith in God,
our faith causes us to do what God said for us to do.
To simply say I have faith, and not do what God says,
is to prove that really you do not have faith.
They say, "Well, I do not have to do what the Bible says,
"I am going to be saved by my faith."
Well, you have faith in faith,
but you do not have faith in God.
Now look at Hebrews 11:8.
"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place
"which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed;
"and he went out, not knowing whither he went."
Back in Gen 12:1 we read:
"Now the Lord had said unto Abram,
"'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
"and from thy father's house,
"unto a land that I will shew thee:"
Verse 1 says that God would show him the land.
But first, before he was going to show him the land,
Abram had to move.
He had to do something to show
that he was going to do what God said.
Remember when God told Abraham to offer Isaac,
he said go down to the land to a mountain that I will show thee.
Before God was going to tell him the mountain,
he wanted to see that he would get to that land first.
Now there are 31 words in this sentence,
and they are put there for a reason,
but if you look for the subject of the sentence
and the verb of the sentence,
you have the whole sentence in reality.
Here it is:
The subject is Abraham.
The verb is obeyed.
Abraham obeyed.
What did Abraham do?
He obeyed God.
What did he do to obey?
He went out like God said,
and did not even know where he was going.
He did it by faith, He obeyed and he was righteous.
He did right.
God said it and he did it.
Simple trusting faith.
So it says, "by faith Abraham, when he was called..."
"When he was called" is a present participle in Greek.
It reads in the Greek like this:
"As he was being called..."
In other words, God did not say that,
and then Abraham said, "Well, I will wait a few years."
No!
It was fresh and it happened
while the words were still ringing in his ears.
That is the present, when he was being called, he went out,
not knowing where he went.
He could not return home and tell his friends,
"Guess what? We are leaving
"and we are going to go to this great land.
"We are going where the grass is green and fertile,
"the mountains are nice, and the valleys are beautiful."
He could not tell them,
"Hey we are going to a land flowing of milk and honey."
He did not know where he was going.
You see why that took faith and trust?
Wives, suppose one day this week your husband
comes in and says to you, "Wife, we are moving."
And you say, "We are? Why?"
"Well, my boss told me he wants to send me somewhere else."
"Oh really? Where to?"
"I do not know, but he said he would tell us on the way.
"So get packed because the truck will be here in the morning."
"Wait! Where are we going?"
"I do not know, but he said he would tell me later."
Well, what would you think?
What do you think Sarah thought
when her husband came in and said that to her.
"Sarah get packed."
"Why?
"God said move, oh? Where to?"
"Do not know, he said he would show me later."
So they packed up and left.
Trust in God.
They had enough trust in God to simply do what he said.
Hebrews 11:8-9 says, "By faith Abraham, when he was called to
"go out into a place which he should after receive
"for an inheritance, obeyed;
"and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise,
"as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles
"with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise."
He sojourned, that is ,he was a stranger.
He was a stranger in his own land, for a hundred years.
I have lived in certain areas for long periods of time.
For instance, I lived in Los Angeles
for almost twelve years,
and mostly I do not feel like I am a stranger there.
Abraham was given this land, and he lived there 100 years,
and the Bible says he sojourned there.
He lived there with the other people.
Why then was he called a sojourner?
It was his land because God gave it to him.
But Abraham knew he was just visiting there.
It was not his real homeland.
He was searching for a new land, a heavenly country.
As in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
Abraham lived with Isaac for about 75 years.
Abraham lived with Jacob for about 15 years.
So they all lived in the land together for awhile.
And then God gave Isaac the same promise he gave Abraham:
all nations would be blessed by him.
Then he gave Jacob the same promise he had given Isaac:
all nations would be blessed by his line.
Now look at the phrase: "lving in tabernacles."
Here they were in their own land,
and they live in tabernacles. Tents.
You and your wife go to a land, and she says to you,
"How long are we going to live here?"
And you say, "The rest of our lives."
She says, "Fine. Where are we going to build our house?"
"Nah, we are just going to live in a tent over here."
"These other people live in houses right? Yes?
"But we are not. Why?"
"Because we are not permanently attached to this place."
I believe the reason the Hebrews writer wrote about the tents,
was to show these Jews,
that the land there was not going to be their land forever.
It was not his home.
Now look at verse 10.
"For he looked for a city which hath foundations,
"whose builder and maker is God."
Why not build a house Abraham?
Because he had a permanent dwelling place.
Why are you a sojourner?
Because he had citizenship in another place.
He looked for another city, that is, he expected it.
He was waiting for that city which was built by God.
He was faithful, oh how he wanted heaven!
Jesus made a promise to the apostles.
In John 14 he said,
"Let not your heart be troubled:
"ye believe in God, believe also in me.
"In my Father's house are many mansions:
"if it were not so, I would have told you.
"I go to prepare a place for you.
"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again,
"and receive you unto myself;
"that where I am, there ye may be also.
But wait a minute Jesus.
You mean I do not have to do anything to receive it,
just live however I like, and do whatever I want,
and I can go to you?
Remember Jesus had already told them
what they were supposed to do after he left,
and Judas certainly was not going to receive this reward.
But in order to receive the home in heaven,
they had to remain faithful to God,
they had to not only believe IN God, they had to believe God.
They had to do what he said.
They had to show forth their faithfulness.
Suppose they had said,
"Well Jesus said he is going to prepare a place for us,
"so we will just kick back, we will not talk to people,
"we will not carry out the commissions given to us.
"We will just hang out here, go back to fishing,
"and never tell a soul what God told us to do."
Friends, they already believed in Jesus.
The question was, did they believe Jesus?
Were they going to do what Jesus said for them to do?
Do we look for that city?
Do we look for the city made by God?
Do we have faith in God, in that we will do what he said to do?
Because we are learning in this chapter
that having faith in faith
is not the same as having faith in God.
Now go back to Hebrews 11:11.
"Through faith also Sara herself received strength
to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child
when she was past age,
because she judged him faithful who had promised.
Sara is one of the women of the Bible considered faithful.
Remember in Genesis 18 when Abram saw those three men
out in the plains of Mamre and he said,
"come in let me fix a meal for you.
"And let me wash your feet," and so forth.
And they ended up telling him that Sara was going to conceive
and have a son.
Sara was inside the tent listening,
and they said it and she laughed.
"How is that?" she said. "I have been barren all these years
"and my husband is old too."
So then, why does the Bible call her faithful?
She judged him faithful, the one who made the promise.
The word judged carries with it the idea she thought it out,
that she considered what had been said,
and that after she had looked at it more closely,
she said there is no problem here.
Why? Because she had judged him faithful.
At first she laughed, but then she thought about it,
and thought about who made the promise,
and decided God would keep his promises.
When you and I consider who it is that has said the promise,
we need to be convinced that nothing is impossible with God.
Some people look at God through human eyes,
and they judge him according to what they think God would do.
God said he parted the Red Sea,
and yet I heard it from a preacher this past week,
explaining how the Israelites walked through the Red Sea.
He said that at certain seasons,
there are points along the Red Sea that trickle down
to about a three inch deep puddle,
and so you can believe your Bible.
What is the problem?
The Bible does not say they walked through shallow water.
It says they walked through on dry ground.
Well, the problem is like the old lady said,
"What a miracle that all of Pharaohís army
"and all the horses and all the soldiers,
"died in a three inch puddle of water."
The problem is, this preacher does not believe God.
He wants to believe the Bible,
but he does not believe that God has the power to do
what the Bible says he did.
And we need to consider,
that God said there are things that we must do,
and if we do these things, he will keep his promises to us.
The promise of heaven.
We need to judge him faithful who said what he said.
That is what Sara did.
We need to consider two things in relationship to God here,
just as Sara had to look at:
Is God able to make a 90 year old Sara to have a Son?
She said yes, he is able. I believe he can.
Then is God faithful to do what he said he would do?
She said I am sure he will make it happen.
Now someone says, "Wait a minute there Phillip.
"I thought you said that faith cometh by hearing
"and hearing by the Word of God."
Well, the Bible said that,
And all along we have seen how that by faith,
God said something, and then the people had to do something
in order to be faithful to it.
Well what did Sara do?
Here is a woman who had been barren all her life,
that is, she had tried to have children before.
She and her husband had done what is right
for a married couple to do.
They had tried and tried and tried to have children.
So it is not like they had never had *** relations before.
But now God says the two of you are going to have a child.
They both had to do something to have that child.
It was not like the birth of Jesus,
where a *** was to have a baby.
If they were to be faithful to God in this
and if they were to truly believe God,
they had to go back to the bedroom
and have a relation that would bring forth a child.
Suppose that after Sara laughed, she thought about it and said,
"Yes I have faith that God will give us a child,"
yet she and Abram never went in and slept with one another.
I want to ask you a question.
Would they have had a child? No!
Why? Because it is not a matter of simply saying
"I believe in God," but rather "I believe God."
And if God says I can have a child and I am 90 years old,
there is still something I have to do to have that child.
I have to have a *** union with my 100 year old husband.
How was she faithful?
1. She judged him faithful who made the promise to her.
2. Then she acted upon her faith in him.
She did something to show that she was faithful.
Friend, that is what faithfulness is.
That is what having faith does.
It is not simply saying, "I believe in God,"
but in being faithful to what God said to do.
And when he said you can bear a child,
folks there is only one way to do that,
and that is by having a relationship with your spouse.
And so in order to show herself faithful to God, she had to,
at the age of 90 years old, after trying all her life,
she had to go back to bed with her 100 year old husband
in order to show her faith in God.
What is the point?
Noah was told to build, so he went and built.
Abram was told to go, so he went.
Sara was told to conceive, and she did what she was told
and laid with her husband.
It is one thing to say I believe in God.
I believe in Jesus as the son of God.
Remember many of the Jews believed,
but would not confess for fear of the priests.
It is one thing to believe in Jesus.
It is another to believe Jesus.
And if I believe Jesus, I will do what he says do.
Noah belived God because he did what he was told.
Abram believed God because he did what he was told.
Sarah believed God and she did what she was told.
And yet many in the denominational world say,
"Well I believe in God and my faith will get me to heaven."
You mean, you have a mental belief in Jesus,
but you refuse to do what he says.
And you think that is faith?
That is having faith in faith, but it not faith in God.
If you believe God and if you believe Christ,
do what he says do.
do what he says do.
What does God say to do to be saved?
He says believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. John 3:16
But that is not the end.
It is not just having a mental belief.
Because it is that belief, it is that faith,,
that will lead you to do
whatever it is that God says we must do.
So then after we believe,
we are told to repent of your sins. Acts 2:38
Repent and be baptized in order to the forgiveness of your sins.
So repentance, that is, to change your life,
to change the life you have been living, and now live for Christ.
And then we must confess Jesus is the son of God
as we are told in Romans 10:9-10.
Confess with the mouth that Jesus is God.
But not only with your mouth.
You must confess it in your everyday life
in the way that you live.
And then friend, you must be baptized,
And then friend, you must be baptized,
immersed in water. Acts 2:38; 1 Peter 3:21; Mark 16:16
And then we must remain faithful,
that is we must continue to do what he says. Revelation 14:13
If you are listening today and you are not a child of God,
you need to ask yourself a question.
Do you believe Jesus enough to do what he says?
Do you have faith in God,
or do you simply have faith in your faith?
If you are listening today
and you need to become a child of God,
why not do so this very day?
Show your faith in God,
by simply doing what he says to do.
This is faith.
Simple, trusting faith in God.
Believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
Repent of your sins.
Confess Jesus with your mouth and then with your life.
Let your light so shine before men
that they can see your good works
and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.
And then live your life, being baptized, immersed
and raised to walk a new life, happy to serve God
and to prove your faith to him by doing what he says.
Oh friend, we hope and pray that this study of Hebrews chapter 11
is encouraging you and making you think,
that it is causing you to read God's word more
so that you can understand what faith truly is.
Not what the denominational world will tell you faith is,
but that you will study God's word
and will be able to make up your own mind
that you will be able to show your faith, not in faith,
but to show your faith in God.
We certainly hope that you will join us again as we study faith.
♪ "Sitting at the feet of Jesus,
oh what words I hear Him say.
Happy place so near, so precious
may it find me there each day.
Sitting at the feet of Jesus,
I would look upon the past."♪
If you would like to learn more about God's word with
a free Bible Correspondence Course,
then write us at Truth For The World
P.O. Box 5048, Duluth, GA 30096
the United States of America.
Or visit us online at truthfortheworld.org
The preceding program was a production of
Truth For The World, a work of the Duluth Church of Christ