The Book of Hebrews 11:4-7 By faith
Hebrews 11:4-7 · Vern Peterman · Mar 23, 2014
Hebrews, No. 46
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926421512282

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. As we go through this passage, Hebrews 11, 4-7, that Brad just read for us here, there are four principles of progressive revelation and four verses to progress through this morning. So four. This morning is brought to you by the number four. So we begin our way through this great hall of faith, as we've been calling it. There are four great principles of progressive revelation.

Now this is something that applies throughout the Bible, and I think here particularly it's going to be important for us to observe it actually as we continue through this chapter 11 here. Those principles can actually guide our understanding of all of Scripture. And as we begin our way through this great hall of faith, we will examine four verses here this morning that will provide insights into the nature of faith and into the saints of the Old Testament.

All the names listed here in this chapter are out of the Old Testament. So the principles of progressive revelation we'll be working with here start this way. You have the Bible composed of 66 books. They were written by about 40 authors, and almost all of whom were Jewish. Luke could be an exception in the New Testament, and possibly Job in the Old Testament. over a period of about 1,500 years, and that's the point that brings us to this idea of progressive revelation.

God didn't give an instant flash revelation where he gave all of what he wished to reveal at one point in time. He didn't just walk up to Adam and say, now look, you're going to need this, and here's the Bible, and it's got all these things, and there are stories in it that you're not going to see during your lifetime, but it's all there. God didn't do it that way, did he? What he did instead is to reveal things a little at a time and have things recorded over time. Some things were recorded in a short period of time and referred to a short period of time.

Acts, for example, that they're going through in one of the electives, over about three decades of time. The Gospels cover the ministry of Jesus and except for the birth narratives, largely covering just a few years each. And so you'll have differences like that. Then you have Psalms, which took a thousand years to accumulate. So that would be in contrast. Nonetheless, God revealed things over time.

As a principle, a principle, and we talk about the principles of progressive revelation, a principle is either the way things work, For example, the way things work now is through the principle of grace, not the principle of law. So the way things work or a fundamental truth. And the reality is both of those are true for the principles we'll be looking at here. So this word principle, we have principle one.

So what do we know now? If you were to walk up to Noah, if you were to walk up to Noah and say, Noah, tell me what God has revealed to human beings up to this point. He'd take you up through about Genesis chapter 9 and that would be about it. That's all that had been revealed by God as special revelation. Later on, later on, as more was revealed, there would be more things to talk about.

If you were to ask Peter on the day of Pentecost, I'm sure he was plenty busy, but if you were to ask him on the day of Pentecost, what can you tell us about the Apostle Paul? He'd go, huh? He would know nothing of the Apostle Paul. That had not been revealed yet.

So revelation is progressive. That's one of the principles. So we could ask the question at any point, what did the people who are living then know at that point in time. God revealed progressively until the last book of the New Testament. The next principle, what do we know about the future?

The Bible contains prophecy, and one of the first prophecies is Genesis 3.15 that points to Christ, but there's not a lot of detail there, I'll admit. So what prophecy is revealed is revealed over time. In round numbers, the Bible has about 10,000 points of prophecy. About 5,000 of those have been fulfilled. So there's still yet 5,000 more in round numbers to be fulfilled.

So what do we know about the future? As you were to go through the Bible, there would be additional prophetic revelations given, and that would be what's known about the future. But all those revelations were not given until the book of Revelation was complete, right? So what do we know about the future is another question you could ask based on what God's revealed so far. Third principle, what do we know about the past? There is also a principle of progressive revelation that sometimes later revelation gives us insight into the past that we wouldn't know otherwise.

And here would be an example. We are told about Adam in the early chapters of Genesis, but we aren't told that all mankind is in Adam and therefore all die until 1 Corinthians 15-22. See that? So that's looking back we get an insight. And we're going to find in this Hebrews passage this morning, we're going to get insights into things that happened back in Genesis that we didn't know about until the writing of this book of Hebrews. There would be another one. We're told about Moses leading the Israelites under the cloud and through the sea in Exodus chapters 14 and 15. But we're not told that the Israelites were baptized into Moses until 1 Corinthians 10. So we get subsequent revelation giving us insights into revelation that's already been given.

Here would be another one, the directions about the Passover lamb are given in Exodus 12, but 1 Corinthians 5.7 says explicitly that Christ is our Passover who has been sacrificed. So that insight isn't given until the New Testament, even though the Passover was instituted in the second book of the Bible, Exodus.

The fourth principle here, revelation is progressive until it's complete. And therefore, when it's complete, you don't keep coming on with more and more revelations. That's the mistake of groups like, say, the Mormon Church, where they introduce new books after the revelation is complete.

So the Old Testament revelation was progressive until the time of Malachi, the last prophet, towards the year 400 BC. Any attempt to add to the 39 Old Testament books was false on one or more levels, since the line of Old Testament prophets had ended. The New Testament revelation was progressive until the last book was written by the Apostle John, the book of Revelation. Any attempt to add to those 27 books is false.

Jude, the second to last book, says, Contend for the faith of the saints, which was once for all given to the saints. Once given, perpetually valid. Revelation also has a caution against anybody adding to the prophecies or taking away from the prophecies of this book.

So let's read Hebrews 11.4 and we'll start in on these four verses here.

By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous. God testifying about his gifts through faith, though he is dead he still speaks. Now, so let's look at the original passage and see what additional insights we have about Abel from the book of Hebrews. We'll look at Genesis 4, 1 through 8, which I think you have at the top of page 2 of your handout.

Now the man, Adam, had relations with his wife, Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. And she said, I have gotten a man-child with the help of the Lord. We'll see what she thinks about that later. Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel, and Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part, also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering, but for Cain and for his offering he had no regard.

So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell. Then the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, but you must master it. Cain told Abel his brother, and it came about when they were in the field. Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him."

Now let's take a look. We see the remark in here, the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering. Why did the Lord have regard for Abel? I think that's what this verse here gives us some insight on. One of the things we'll point out about this passage here, when Adam sinned, Right before this chapter, God asked Adam and Eve questions. It's very interesting. The Lord asked them questions.

Abel's sacrifice was accepted and Cain's was not accepted. God asked Cain questions. When Cain had killed Abel, God asked Cain even more questions. And God's questions weren't because God didn't have the answer to those questions, but to draw humans to respond and consider the truth, to think. And it's interesting that Cain also shot a question back to God. Am I my brother's keeper? Right? Lots of questions here.

But here's the new insight into the sacrifice by Abel and the sacrifice by Cain. Our reading of just Genesis 4, 1 through 8 might lead us to think that the issue with Abel and with Cain was all about what was sacrificed. And we might conclude, if we just read that, that it's all about what was sacrificed. But this verse tells us that the underlying, that underlying what was sacrificed, the deeper and most significant issue that was really faith in God. That was the issue primarily, not just what was sacrificed. Abel sacrificed on the basis of faith.

Cain did not. Cain did not. The real issues in life are not about the surface things that we see and feel, but the real and deeper issues are about faith. That's the biggie. That was Abel's faith that caused him to please God, and it was Cain's lack of faith that caused his sacrifice to be unacceptable.

Now we want to make a distinction what faith in God does do and what faith in God doesn't do. Right? Faith in God places one's confidence, trust, dependence, hope, and spiritual focus on Him. On Him. That's what faith does. It puts our focus and dependence and trust and confidence and our hope in Him. Faith in God looks to who God is, what God has done and is doing and will do in the future.

Now bear with me here while I do a little bit of wordsmithing. But all of God's who-ing and doing does not mean that you and I are to just veg out like spiritual couch potatoes. Oh, I have faith! Therefore I don't need to do anything. But rather that faith is God's who-ing and doing in God's who-ing and doing turns into real spiritual action. Faith in who God is And what he has done, is doing, and will do, that's the key. And you'll notice as we go through this passage, it turns into real spiritual action.

Abel didn't just say, well, I have faith and just sit there. He made a sacrifice based on the faith. And we'll see further instances of people doing things as a result of faith. Faith is intended to have action consequences. So faith in God doesn't make everything in life easier or better or have a more pleasing outcome to us in any human or earthly sense.

Once in a while I'll hear about somebody who makes an appeal to an unbeliever. Oh, if you'll become a believer then life will just get great and it'll be easy street and it'll be just wonderful. It'll be like on a highway with no turnouts, you know. It'll just be wonderful. Oh boy. Because that's a false bill of goods, isn't it? That's not what's going to happen.

Having faith in God so as to be written about here, like Abel, and used as a teaching point some thousands of years later, in this great hall of faith, got Abel killed. Faith got Abel killed. Does it mean that he was wrong to have faith? No. Oftentimes we will make connections between faith and relationship with the Lord and fellowship with the Lord and say, well, if I do that, then everything's going to be hunky-dory.

It's God's job to make everything nice. No, it is not. And frankly, if it's God's job to make everything nice for us, He's doing a horrible job. He's doing an awful job, if that's His job. But it isn't. Faith, as we'll see again and again as we go through this chapter, faith oftentimes can make things here on planet earth more difficult. It can make it more difficult. Not always, but pretty often. Faith can make things rough. Faith might even shorten your life here on earth. It might even shorten your years.

So here's Hebrews 11.5, by faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death and he was not found because God took him up for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. Enoch walked with God, Enoch believed God, God was pleased with Enoch believing him and walking with him. So God took him. Let's take a look at this. Here's the Genesis 5 passage starting with verse 18.

Jared, and this has nothing to do with buying jewelry, okay? All right. Jared lived 162 years and became the father of Enoch. Then Jared lived 800 years after he became the father of Enoch. He had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Jared were 962 years and he died.

After all those years, you'd think, well, I guess he would. Okay. So verse 21, Enoch lived 65 years and became the father of Methuselah. By the way, his name means, when he dies, it comes. Then Enoch walked with God 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

Wow. He walked with God, and then all of a sudden, he's gone. So let's take a look at this. There are two places in Genesis that say that a person walked with God, and this one is the first. And we're going to read about the other one shortly here. So here's the first one of somebody who walked with God. Regarding Enoch, it says twice that he walked with God. That's putting particular focus, isn't it?

He walked with God, and by the way, he walked with God. Enoch was born and lived and married and had children like all the others in the genealogies that you see repeatedly in the book of Genesis. He had all those other things, but he walked with God. He had sons and daughters and offspring and whatnot. He had a wife, but he walked with God.

He's the only one whose life was short. 365 years. Do you realize how long a time that is? That would be like somebody born in 1649. 1649, and then this year, God goes, whoop, and takes them up. So that's a long time. That's a while back. I don't even remember that far back. But it is why his life was shortened that matters the most. That's the key thing. And you don't see lots of words about it, but it's just a definite statement.

So let's take a look here. All the other people in Genesis died. And that's what you see recorded. Died, died, died, died, died, died. But not Enoch. It says that God took him. God took him. The only thing that's all similar in the rest of the whole Old Testament is the taking up of Elijah. recorded in 2 Kings 2 verses 1-14. And this is where the chariot of Israel takes Elijah up as Elisha, the follow-on prophet, watches. So these two events in the Old Testament have a similarity in the New Testament. In the rapture of the church, those who believe in Christ are taken up to be with the Lord. And this will take place in the future, I'm hoping it's in the not-too-distant future and right today would be fine with me.

So let's talk about this word walk. It's a very interesting one. Walk is an individual action, as opposed to a group action. It's an individual action, ordering of one's life step-by-step, based on spiritual position. It's the living out moment-by-moment of a person's spiritual standing before God.

That's how it's used here in Genesis. It is used in Ephesians 2, 1 through 3, actually for the unbeliever walking. Because the unbeliever is ordering his or her life, moment by moment, day by day, according to their spiritual standing. So this particularly is worded for Enoch and for Noah. To walk, is a Jewish term. The Gentiles understood it, but it was a Jewish term, and it originates here in Genesis. So the Jews would use that term, and the Gentiles would understand it, but the Jews thought in those terms, and they expressed things in that way.

Talk about your walk, and by that they meant not just how you're putting one foot in front of another, but how you're expressing your spiritual life moment by moment, step by step. So Enoch walked with God by faith. He walked by faith. The step-by-step ordering of his life was based on a close fellowship with God, founded on a relationship with God that also came out of faith in God. And God took him.

So here's Hebrews 11.6, the way it reads. Now here we've been going through Abel, and we've been going through Enoch, now we've got, in this verse, not a name, but a principle. And this follows off from looking at Enoch walking with God.

For without faith it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. Must believe that he is, and is a rewarder of those who seek him. Here you have, as it is presented on page three of your handout, without faith it's impossible to please Him. That is, faith is essential to pleasing God, not optional.

We don't have, like at Holly Hills, here is a faith group, and these people, they do faith. So we don't have a group like that. Why? Because faith is for all believers, not just a special group. Faith is for all. It's essential to pleasing God, not optional. And then it says, for he who comes to God must believe that He is.

Now, what that means is that you have to believe that God exists as both an infinite being, He isn't just another person like us, and a personal being. You don't come to God and expect him to be pleased by anything if God is impersonal, as is ultimately taught in Hinduism and Buddhism. Hinduism teaches ultimately an impersonal God. Buddhism actually has branches that don't teach about a God at all, but those that do teach about an impersonal God. But what this is talking about, here is a God who is an infinite being and yet a personal being.

And one of the ways that's expressed in scripture is we are made in the image of God and a part of that is personhood. God has personhood and we have personhood. And that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. The God who exists, that's from up above there, always rewards those who seek him with what they're seeking and much, much more than they ever dreamed. This principle applies for salvation, and it also applies for ongoing walk with the Lord. From day to day, do I believe that He is, believe that He exists, and do I see Him as a rewarder of those who seek Him? Is there a payback for those who seek Him?

Nancy and I heard a man speak one time. He was from Africa. Matter of fact, he said, I'm the example of the heathen from Africa, right? And he pronounced his name. I can't pronounce it because it has a bunch of pops and clicks and things like that. He said, just don't worry about that. Just call me Gus. And Gus said, you know, I was in Africa.

I was out in a very remote village and I was the village juvenile delinquent. I was always getting in trouble. And the solution of the other people in the village to get rid of the problem that I had was to dry pepper water up my nose. Hold me down and dry pepper water up my nose and burn my nose out. And he said it never worked. It made me very mad.

But one day, Gus said, God, if you're Real, I want you to show yourself to me. And this was in a village where they didn't teach God. They taught the spirit of the rock, and the spirit of the tree, and the spirit of the animals, and that kind of thing. Animism. They didn't teach about God.

But Gus had a knowledge that there was a God above all these little spooky guys out here. And he said, God, if you're real, I want you to reveal yourself to me. And shortly thereafter, Gus's best friend said, hey, there's a guy over in a village nearby that is telling people about God and how you can get to know him. And Gus said, tell me more.

And his friend wouldn't. But he ultimately pressed and got the information they needed and went over there and became a believer. Because there was, in fact, a man who was telling the gospel. So here's Gus. He talked to God and believed that he exists, right? And God indeed rewarded. Gus is seeking him out. God rewarded. Gus is seeking him out.

So this is a principle that's taught here in Hebrews 11.6.

See, faith is like breathing. It's not optional. You must, you must breathe, please do, and you must breathe and you also must have faith. The reason I think that we have people who believe in all kinds of things is God has made human beings to have faith. So the question is not will I have faith, it's where do I put it? So, human beings place their faith somewhere, we pointed out last week. That's the nature of human beings, to place their faith somewhere.

Even the so-called scientific materialist, and they will poo-poo religion, they will diss on it, places his faith in all the presuppositions of modern science. We had a handout last week, we ran out of them, so I've made some more available on the cabinet to the right as you exit the room.

So one of the things we pointed out last week is the evolutionists believe that rodents, and there have been theories about primates, that rodents evolved into bats. Now it so turns out that there's not any fossils in between those. None. No fossils in between those. So, and here is the oldest, according to their dating method, this is the oldest Bat fossil, 52.5 million years old, found in Wyoming. Not too far away. So, to believe that things evolved without any evidence, historically, no fossils, that's faith. That's faith.

On page 174 of the greatest show on earth, atheist scientist, he's a biologist, Richard Dawkins write, as the giraffe's neck slowly lengthened over evolutionary time. Now, if the giraffe's neck slowly lengthened over evolutionary time from an okapi-like creature, like you see in the picture. You can see both of those over at the Denver Zoo, right? An okapi-like creature evolved into a giraffe, but it slowly evolved over time. You'd expect to find some fossils in between the okapi and the giraffe, right? And do you know how many fossils they found? Eh, not so much, right? And so, if you believe that a copulite creature evolved into a giraffe without any evidence whatsoever, historically, then that's faith.

That's faith. And I have another one here. I add to last week's turtles. And I have a quote here from Current Biology, May of last year. So it's a little less than a year old. Dr. Dyson and Dr. Bever noted that the origin of the turtle and its shell have been controversial. Scientists disagree on where turtles fit on the tree of life, said Dr. Bever, in part because of a disagreement stemming from the lack of clear transitional fossils. Those animals whose remains indicate an intermediate state between ancestors and descendants. So do we have the intermediate fossils?

No, they don't exist. So if you believe, however, in spite of any evidence, if you believe without any evidence that that evolution took place, then that's faith. And I could go on, but we've got other things to do here. Okay. Faith is like breathing. It's not optional. Everybody exercises faith. Everybody. Okay.

Everybody exercises faith matter of fact all of you are putting faith in the pews that you're sitting on right and the floor that's underneath them Aren't you right you're you are putting faith in the support of those pews in the floor Faith gets us up to and through the front door of a relationship with God and faith is now a is how we have the ongoing fellowship with God once that relationship is established. There is a concept of relationship, and then there's a concept of fellowship. Relationship is a long-term, I would say relatively permanent situation. Fellowship is something that can come and go.

And I give this example, especially with Randy. He doesn't happen to be here today, I don't think. At any rate, here's Randy. He's my son. He's always going to be my son. I'm always going to be his father. That's the relationship. Now, it's possible that I might do something horribly offensive, and he might call me up and say, Dad, after what you did, I'm sorry, you just can't come over for a while. I've done something to break fellowship with Randy and his family. Now, the relationship will always be there. He will always be my son. I will always be his father.

But the fellowship is something that can be broken. That's an important distinction to make. Faith is involved in both. We believe so as to be saved. We believe that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again so as to be saved and therefore establishing a relationship forever. The fellowship is a moment-by-moment issue. Fellowship is a moment-by-moment issue. Okay, so here's Hebrews 11, 7.

By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. So here is portions of Genesis chapter 6 I'm going to read 13 and 14, 17, 18, and 22 here, which you also have in a slide on page four of your handout. Then God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. And behold, I'm about to destroy them with the earth. And verse 14, make for yourself an ark of gopher wood. And he goes on from there to give description of what that is. For the moment, we'll pass by that and go to verse 17.

Behold, I, even I, am bringing the flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh, in which is the breath of life. From under heaven, everything that is on the earth shall perish. But I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, you and your sons and your wives with you." Thus Noah did according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

And we find in Genesis 7.1, start of the next chapter, then the Lord said to Noah, enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before me in this time.

You alone I have seen to be righteous before me in this time. Second Peter, here's how we again have an insight from the past. into the past from the later revelation. So 2 Peter 2, 4, and 5, also in the slide on page 4. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. So the insight we have here, by faith Noah, by faith Noah, 120 years, Noah followed through on what God told him.

Genesis 6.3, and he built the ark all the while preaching righteousness, even though he argued with the building inspector incessantly.

Right? They probably just laughed at him. I doubt there was any building inspector, but they probably just laughed at him. What a ridiculous thing this guy is building here. Why on earth would you have this ark in the middle of dry land? How are you going to move this monstrous thing? Noah had never seen a flood like this before and neither anybody else.

It's even possible that he hadn't seen rain since Genesis 2.6 in the early earth describes a mist coming up from the ground to water things rather than rain like we have now. So I say possible, I'm not saying that dogmatically. But Noah believed God, though it took up a lot of time, over 120 years.

How's this going to fit on the schedule? I've got to build an ark. I've got to gather together all these animals, two by two. I've got to gather together food for all of us and all these animals. And everything else we're going to have to use on the ark. How are we going to play tennis on this thing? And not even one person listened to him. Imagine, he was a preacher. Didn't you say he was righteous? He was a preacher of righteousness. How successful was he? 120 years?

Nobody. None. Zip. So would you say that Noah just wasn't very good at that? He wasn't persuasive, right? No, by faith. By faith Noah did these things. He did exactly what God wanted, even if the people didn't respond. His responsibility was not to get a response. His responsibility was to build this ark, get ready for the flood, and preach righteousness. That's it.

Now, one of the things that we want to get across here Faith might jerk your life around. We're going to see that as we continue through this chapter. Faith might jerk your life around. If you're expecting that believing in God... If I pray about everything, then everything is going to be okay, right? Everything will be smooth, right? Not so much.

As we saw with Abel, faith might get you killed. Faith might get you killed. Years ago, there was a fellow, he's home with the Lord now, but he was a missionary over in China. He told about when the communists took over when he was there, and a communist Chinese officer, a lieutenant I believe it was, came up to him and was wanting to get the list of all the Christians that he knew.

A friend of mine said, no, I'm not giving that to you. So the officer went and pulled the pistol out of his holster and stuck it to his head and he says, don't you know that I could blow your brains out? My friend answered, that's all you can do. So he realized that that pistol offered no leverage and he put it back in his holster. But he was at risk there, wasn't he?

Faith might get you killed. Faith might get you killed. As we saw with Enoch, faith might shorten your life, at least the one here. Enoch walked with God, and God took him. Took him home early. You can imagine how that might have been. You can imagine everybody's around the table eating, You know, dinner and all of a sudden, you know, what happened? You know, I don't know. He's gone. I'm not sure how it happened, but that would be interesting.

As we saw in 11.6, God will not ever be pleased without faith. You can't do stuff without faith. and have God pleased. It's just not going to work. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. And the reverse way of putting that, only with faith is it possible to please Him. Only with faith. Faith is essential. As we saw with Noah, faith might inconvenience you a lot. It might inconvenience you for 120 years. Faith might make things inconvenient. But it's still the only way to please God. Faith is essential not only for a person to be saved initially, but it's also essential for an intimate walk with God.

See, God is not delegating things for us to do and to have us report back to Him. God doesn't want us to kind of say, OK, I've got the assignment. Let me go off and do it. And I'm going to come back and tell you how I did. and have you give your thumbs up or thumbs down. That's not the way God works.

God wants everything done in faith. Just like we saw here in this chapter, by faith, Abel, by faith, Enoch, by faith, Noah, and we're going to see that through the rest of the chapter. God wants everything by faith, and that includes even things God wants you to do. It isn't a matter of getting the assignment, going off and doing it, and then come back and checking in. By faith is how it gets done. Always by faith. That's what God has in mind. Not our working real hard and then checking back with God and say, how did I do? Do you realize if we try really hard to be good Christians and do lots of good stuff, God won't be pleased? He won't. Why?

Verse 6. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. No matter how much good stuff you do, No matter how much bad stuff you try not to do, without faith, it's impossible to please Him. You cannot please Him without faith. And where is that faith? Is that faith in you? No. Faith is in Him. Everybody has faith. But it's only faith in Him that's going to matter. Only faith in Him matters. And faith is absolutely essential. Must have it. God's not going to be pleased with anything else, no matter how hard we try or no matter how good we might think we are. Only with faith is it possible to please Him.

Let's pray in faith right now. Lord, we do thank you for what you've revealed here as we've begun our way through this great hall of faith. And we've seen these Old Testament saints and what they went through. We've seen that faith is exactly what you want, and it doesn't guarantee nice things necessarily here on planet Earth. But this isn't the existence that matters in the end anyway. We thank you that as we look at these things, we see all the more reason to take great hope and confidence in you and to place our hope in you alone. And we thank you for what you've given us here and what you're going to give us in the Sundays to come, unless you come. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.