Participants: James Rafferty, Ty Gibson
Series Code: BOTB
Program Code: BOTB00011A
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00:20 Welcome Friends to books of the book.
00:22 This is the program that considers the Bible one book 00:26 at a time, just as the scriptures read. 00:28 I'm Ty Gibson and with me as my co-host James Rafferty. 00:32 And we are presently engaged in the study of the book Hebrews, 00:35 and we have come to chapter 11 now James. 00:38 Let's launch right into our study. 00:39 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the 00:43 evidence of things not seen. 00:45 So, he is beginning here with a working definition of faith. 00:51 And the whole chapter unfolds by giving us living examples of 00:57 what faith looks like when it is in action. 01:00 And so a number of individuals are specifically named as 01:04 examples of what faith looks like. 01:07 You know, it's interesting Ty because as soon as Paul defines 01:11 faith, in verse one, he jumps in verse two to the elders, who 01:16 by faith have obtained a good report. 01:17 An in a sense you are thinking. The elders, hmmm, OK! Who's he 01:21 talking about specifically. 01:22 He could be talking any generation of God's people. 01:25 It seems like maybe he's talking about all of them. 01:27 And then in verse three he goes back to the very beginning. 01:30 It is as if he is saying now wait a minute before I get to 01:33 the elders before I get basic summary of everyone. 01:37 Let me go back to the very beginning and establish 01:41 where faith begins. 01:42 Through faith we understand, verse three, 01:45 that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. 01:47 So that the things which are seen were not made of things 01:51 which do appear. 01:53 And this is one of Paul's themes in the brook of 01:56 Hebrews that we need to understand, 01:57 because over and over again, he is reiterating 02:00 the fact that our dependence is to be on God and His Word. 02:04 His promises, not on ourselves and not our own strength and 02:08 not on our promises to God. 02:10 Now, he continues on with this theme. 02:12 And develops it in relationships. 02:15 He's talking to them in the book of Hebrews 02:17 about a relationship. 02:19 And he goes back now it starts talking about the relationships 02:22 that God's people had in times past. 02:24 The reason why this is so powerful, because it teaches 02:27 us that faith has always been the means through which 02:30 we have been saved by grace. 02:31 By grace through faith. In other words, there was never an Old 02:35 Testament under the law salvation by law, legalistic 02:38 understanding of how we were saved in relationship to the 02:42 everlasting gospel. 02:43 There may have been people that fell into that like we do or 02:46 see in the New Testament. 02:47 But God's people were always saved by grace through faith. 02:51 Abel for example, he offered up a more excellent sacrifice 02:55 than Cain, why? because he trusted in the Lamb that pointed 02:59 to Jesus Christ, rather than the works of his own hands. 03:03 Abel is testifying of salvation by grace through faith. 03:07 Well Abel somehow, through the offering of this sacrifice, 03:11 is comprehending that his dependence is outside of himself 03:15 He's offering his sacrifice back in the book of Genesis. 03:18 He is by faith discerning to some degree 03:22 the coming Messiah. 03:24 So he's reaching outward, and that is one of the 03:26 aspects of faith. 03:28 Faith reaches outward, it is not a mystical internal working 03:33 up of something within human nature. 03:35 Faith looks outwork it doesn't look inward. 03:39 Abel is looking down through history, so to speak, and 03:43 comprehending that God is going to send forth 03:45 a sacrifice for my sins. 03:48 It is nothing that I can achieve in myself. 03:50 I really like this because, Paul is going now he is moving in 03:54 to a more practical understanding of 03:56 Christian experience. 03:58 Talking about faith and how it works. 03:59 And he does this in the context of, I think, versus 24 and 25. 04:04 Of Hebrews 10 where he says that we should consider 04:07 one another to provoke unto love and good works. 04:09 Our going to see a lot of good works here in Chapter 11. 04:13 Then he says in verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of 04:16 ourselves together as the matter of some is. 04:18 You know Ty, when we assemble together, to worship God. 04:21 We assemble to exhort one another. 04:23 And one of the key factors in worshiping God is the 04:26 Word of God. 04:27 And the reason why we become strong in faith is because faith 04:30 comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. 04:32 Romans 10: 17. 04:34 So, what we find here that we ought to be exhorted as we read 04:39 the experience of God's people. 04:41 For example, Abel is testifying, he's exhorting us, 04:44 he's not alive today. 04:45 He's not speaking to us literally, but he speaks 04:48 to us through the Word. 04:49 And do you know what he is saying to us, 04:50 don't trust in your own works like 04:52 my brother Cain did. 04:53 Don't trust and the fruit of your labors like 04:55 my brother Cain did. 04:56 Keep your trust in the lamb. 04:58 Keep your focus on Jesus. 05:00 So Abel is the first example of faith given here in 05:03 Hebrews, chapter 11. 05:05 Then, the Apostle Paul moves on to Enoch, 05:07 as his second example, verse 5. 05:10 By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and 05:14 was not found because God had taken him. 05:18 For before he was taken he had this testimony 05:21 that he pleased God. 05:23 This is incredible James. 05:24 This is a amazing to think that here's this individual Enoch, 05:28 and he has an experience with God that is such. 05:30 God looks down upon Enoch, and His relationship with a Enoch 05:34 and He says, you know what I go to take this guy straight to 05:37 heaven a he's not even going to die. 05:39 There's not going to be no resurrection for him. 05:40 I want to fellowship with Enoch right now, 05:42 I'm going to take him into the kingdom. 05:44 Just prematurely, I guess, before I mean the plan 05:48 is scheduled that everybody is supposed to be resurrected 05:51 until the second coming of Jesus. 05:53 But not Enoch, he's going straight into the kingdom 05:55 and the reason is incredible. 05:57 Because he pleased God. 06:00 So Enoch is basically exhorting us, he's encouraging us, telling 06:03 us, you know what it is possible to please God. 06:06 You know, sometimes we can get discouraged, we can get 06:08 overwhelmed, we can doubt that we can please God. 06:11 Here's a man that wants to exhort us, wants to encourage us 06:14 you can please God. 06:15 Isn't it incredible to realize on the one hand, that God is 06:19 the kind of God who can be pleased. 06:22 I think of my relationships with human beings such as my wife. 06:27 My children, friends like you. 06:29 It's possible for us to please one another, to bring 06:33 gratification to a relationship so that the other person is 06:37 just elated and overjoyed to be in this relationship with us. 06:42 But here God is presented to us as a God, who can be pleased 06:46 and in fact is pleased when we have a relationship with Him, 06:51 such as Enoch had. 06:52 But it is through faith, it is through faith. 06:54 And the reason why often we don't feel like we 06:57 can please Him, we doubt we can please him. 06:59 because were not exercising faith. 07:00 We look at ourselves we're looking at our failures we're 07:03 looking at our imperfections we're looking at the lives that 07:05 we live and were thinking there is no way I can please God. 07:08 And that is lack of faith. 07:09 Without faith it is impossible to please God. 07:11 You have to go beyond what you see. 07:13 You had to go beyond the reality of your own experience, and 07:16 you have to step out into that realm of faith and say, you 07:18 know, Enoch pleased God. 07:20 And I believe that I am pleasing God because God has told me 07:22 I'm pleasing him. 07:23 He's pleased with me because I put my faith in Jesus Christ. 07:27 I mean, you think about this James. 07:28 What we are pleasing someone in a relationship, there are 07:31 visible manifestations of the fact that they are pleased 07:35 with the relationship. 07:36 When my wife is pleased, and when I have relationships and 07:41 interactions with my children and they are pleased, 07:42 they smile. 07:43 It's amazing to think that God is not just a lofty distant 07:48 Sovereign Monarch, but God actually takes delight 07:52 in His people. 07:54 I am reminded of the prayer of Jesus and John 17. 07:58 There is so much in John 17, but one of the verses over the 08:02 years that have stood out to me, that I think is just 08:03 incredible is in verse 23. 08:06 It says there, Jesus speaking to the Father, He says Father, you 08:10 have loved them, as you have loved me. 08:13 It is one thing to think of the Father loving Jesus, and I know 08:19 that God loves me. 08:20 I know that God loves you. 08:22 But here, Jesus says, Father You love Ty, You love James, 08:26 You loved them. 08:27 These human beings who have brought such heartache 08:30 and pain to You. 08:31 You love them like you love me. 08:34 That is extremely gratifying to realize that God loves us like 08:39 He loves Jesus. 08:40 And those words come from Jesus Christ. 08:42 Those words are words that are found in the Bible. 08:44 Those words are believed by faith. 08:46 And we want to look to those words and understand 08:49 and believe that God loves us. 08:51 By Faith Noah, he warned of things as not seen of yet, verse 08:54 seven, moved with fear, prepared an ark to save his house by 08:57 which he condemned the world and became an heir of 09:00 righteousness which is by faith 09:01 Now, what does this mean? 09:02 Here we have a man who is building an ark and the 09:05 whole world is against him. 09:06 The whole world is in opposition to him. 09:09 He is stepping out by faith, and he is seeking to not only 09:14 build this ark, to saving his home, 09:16 But he is seeking to warn the 09:18 world of something that is going to come. 09:19 We need to notice here that in this verse it says by faith 09:24 Noah moved with Godly fear. 09:28 So faith produces movement. 09:32 I'm reminded of Galatians 5 and verse six. 09:35 Where the apostle Paul says that faith works by love. 09:38 The word works there or in the King James version it says 09:42 faith worketh by love. 09:44 The word in the Greek is energos for which we get 09:49 the English word energy or to energize. 09:51 So, it literally reads that faith is energized by love. 09:56 Faith is activated, faith is moved by love. 10:00 That's what Noah was experiencing. 10:03 Noah didn't just have an intellectual faith. 10:06 He didn't just believe something as a theory, 10:09 a concept, as an idea. 10:10 Noah, because of what he believed and understood, 10:15 moved with Godly fear, 10:17 he did something about what he believed. 10:20 Faith is active. 10:22 I liked this is what you're talking about here. 10:24 You're talking about love being the energy, 10:26 the source of energy for our faith. 10:29 It's like food, you know, when you eat food you get energy 10:32 from the food. 10:33 And of course, that energy sustains you and 10:35 allows you to be active. 10:36 And as you are active, you begin to get tired or drained. 10:39 You need more energy, it's the same in our 10:42 spiritual experience. 10:43 We need the energy of God's love. 10:45 We need to partake of that energy. 10:48 We need to absorb that energy. 10:49 Take that energy in. 10:50 We need to let God's love be continually to be revealed to us 10:53 to be taken in by us, so that we can be energized to good works. 10:57 We find this concept in many places in the Bible, but I think 11:00 also in relation to what you're saying about drinking it in, 11:03 taken it in being energized by God's love. 11:05 In Ephesians chapter 3, Paul uses a agricultural metaphor, 11:12 and he says that we are to be rooted and grounded 11:15 in God's love. 11:16 A root system of a plant a tree is the means by which the 11:20 plant reaches dawn into the soil to draw up the nutrients 11:24 and the moisture out of that soil into its branches to 11:28 produce the leaves and the fruit and that's exactly 11:31 what we are to do. 11:32 We are to drink in the love of God as in the empowering 11:37 reality of our spiritual experience. 11:40 Absolutely. I believe that Noah was here today friends, he 11:42 would be exhorting us, and this is what he'd say to us. 11:45 The world may be against you. 11:46 The world may oppose you. 11:48 You may have to do something by faith in God that is contrary 11:52 to everything that the world is doing. 11:54 But I want to encourage you Noah would say, I want to 11:57 exhort you, that's what I did and God honored that choice 12:00 I made, you too can stand against the world like I did. 12:03 God will bless you with the faith you are exercising 12:06 in His word. 12:07 The next example here of living faith that we are taken to in 12:11 chapter 11 of Hebrews verse eight. 12:14 That is by faith Abraham obeyed. 12:17 And here again, Noah by faith moved and the previous one Enoch 12:24 was taken because he pleased God by faith. 12:27 Abel offered an offering to God by faith. 12:31 So the faith in every instance is active, it's living, 12:34 it does something. 12:35 Here Abraham obeyed God. 12:37 And when he was called to go out into a place where 12:42 he should afterwards receive an inheritance, 12:43 he obeyed and he went out. 12:45 So he obeyed him, he went out. 12:46 Not even knowing where he was going. 12:48 You know, I like to camp, I do like to camp. 12:50 Abraham went out with a tent, with his family to camp. 12:54 Now when I go camping Ty with my family, we had these air 12:58 mattresses, you know, and this cook stove. 12:59 When we go out for three or four days. 13:01 We always go my wife always insists that we go to a campsite 13:05 that has flushed toilet's and etc.. 13:06 We know where we're going. 13:08 we know how long to get there, 3 or 4 days at the max. 13:10 We know we are going back home to a nice soft cushy 13:12 environment in our home. 13:14 Abraham went out, didn't know where he was going, probably 13:16 didn't have air mattresses or flush toilets back then. 13:19 And he didn't know how long he was going to be 13:21 living in this tent. 13:22 This is incredible. 13:23 Abraham went out, do you feel like God is calling you to go 13:27 out and you don't know where you are going to end up? 13:29 You don't know what the future holds. 13:30 You don't know where you're going. 13:31 You do have to step out by faith, if you do, 13:34 Abraham wants to encourage you. 13:35 I've been there I've done that. 13:37 God will bless you. 13:38 Not only did Abraham go out physically, not only did 13:43 he leave his home, his family, the place that he was raised. 13:46 But Abraham went out of a particular world view, 13:50 he went out of Babylon, out of Ur which was his city. 13:54 And God was actually founding a nation through Abraham, but 14:00 not just a political nation. 14:01 Not just the civil power. 14:02 God was founding a whole new religion that would be based on 14:07 faith, that would be based on a confident looking forward to 14:12 of the Messiah coming into this world as the sacrifice for sin. 14:18 So God got Abraham out of Babylon, and then through a 14:22 process of spiritual experience, as he went out. 14:25 God went through a process of getting Babylon, out of Abraham. 14:31 And you can see this, he dwelt in the land of promise in a 14:36 strange country. 14:37 This was a different country. 14:38 It was a different country because he was going to have a 14:41 different experience. 14:42 He was leaving the old and embracing the new. 14:43 The next example, we see here is in verse 11, closely 14:47 connected of course, with Abraham and that Sarah, 14:52 His wife, by faith Sarah herself received strength. 14:56 This is also very important, because we have all this action 15:00 going on with faith. 15:02 We have obedience going on. 15:03 We have moving going on. 15:04 We have pleasing God going on. 15:06 And then now we realize that faith also doesn't just acts, 15:11 but it received strength from God. 15:14 We're going to continue looking at this James, but we need to 15:17 take a break right now. 15:18 But faith is definitely an exciting living, active 15:21 principle that we want to bring in our own experience. 15:25 Like they did into theirs. 15:27 Don't go away. 15:28 We'll be right back in a moment to continue our study. |
Revised 2014-12-17