Hebrews Ch 11
Faith is the conviction of things not seen.
This gets to the very heart and soul of the gospel.
It also gets to the very heart of preaching.
And to the truth of the Spirit of God and his voice being the Word that is living and sharper than a two edged sword.
Preaching is Gods chosen method of people coming to faith.
Preaching is Gods chosen vehicle for awakening the conscience of men and women.
God chooses the received Word of God within men and women as the vehicle by which others hear his voice. Are individual testimony, are individual and corporate resurrection are the basis upon which others can hear Gods voice.
Therefore, are conduct counts. As while God can speak through an ass, as God is holy the closer we are to him the more effectively God can bring conviction to men and women who have not yet been awakened to the sound of his voice.
The sound and witness of Truth is carried by the resurrection. Are awareness of Gods presence is held by the resurrection. Yes Noah and the ark take shape once we come to faith, but ultimately faith in the resurrection from the dead is carried within all faith, as God did not create this world from nought to consign it to death and an eternity of utter darkness, NO NO NO.
By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice that obtained a commendation of being righteous by God, God commending him by accepting his gifts.
Abel offered a lamb unto God. This firstborn of his flock, was a sacrifice done in faith.
Abel offered the lamb, believing that as God had clothed his father & mother to cover their nakedness that he too would likewise be clothed by the offering of his lamb. Clothed in a righteousness not his own, but through the forgiveness of his sins and the offering for them. That God would see this and accept him as righteousness due to his trust and confidence in the lamb sacrificed to clothe his father and mother with.
Abel was not creating his own faith or striving to devise a sacrifice.
This holds. YES this holds great spiritual truth for discipleship and the whole course of are walk and spiritual journey with God.
Abel, simply followed the pattern given. Abels faith heard the word preached from his parents and offer the lamb as his sacrifice and his worship.
Abel knew when he heard his father and mothers testimony that God had not irrevocably cast them out, Abel heard the witness to the truth and it touched in him his conscious and brought conviction that God is righteous but also just to forgive us are sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, when we confess the truth concerning the impact that the fall has had within us.
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death.
This is profound.
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Enoch did not see death.
Enoch entered into everlasting life with God without ever having died.
This is very profound and it is prophetic for are own faith, this man walked with God on planet earth and his son passed on the testimony unto his son until finally it was penned by Moses in Genesis and then expounded on by the writer of the Hebrews epistle.
His son passed on the testimony that his father was taken up by God and did not ‘SEE’ death!
What kind of conviction did this testimony have on those who believed, they witnessed a man not seeing death due to his faith in the unseen. Enoch so walked with God, that his faith was deemed visible, a living testimony of Gods Word and desire to awaken his conscious.
Abel died, despite pleasing God, as his brothers jealously rose up and slew him.
Abel died yet through his faith he still speaks.
Faith is eternal.
That Enoch did not see death shows that Abels faith that still speaks is certain.
If God can take a man up without that man seeing death, proves that the unseen hand of God is greater than the revealed and corrupted will of man.
God is the author of life and God is the judge of the whole earth.
The combination of Abel & Enoch where irrefutable proves of the hearing of Faith.
Enoch revealed by his faith, that obedience to his parents was only the doorway into the realm of possibility in respect to intimacy with God.
Noah constructed an ark for the saving of his household, being warned by God concerning events yet unseen. This faith of Noahs condemned the world as they also could have built arks and yet they chose rather to ridicule Noah and did not allow themselves to come under conviction to the word from God that Noah had heard.
Faith comes through the Word of God. Faith comes through Jesus Christ. Faith believes that God is good and that his mercy endures forever.
Abraham by faith obeyed God.
The scriptures assign one verse each for Seth, Enoch and Noah. But when it comes to Abraham, the text gives twelve verses to Abraham.
Twelve is the number of the tribes of Israel and it is a number synonyms with the Church.
Abraham was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
Abraham understood that even after Noah and the flood, that their was a disjoint between the unseen and the seen. Abraham, understood that the fall and its impact on humanity had left a scar so deep that no amount of collective efforts or the Uniting of Nations would ever be able to rectify the pandemic of sin in the human heart.
Abrahams obedience to God lead him to a new country & had he been mindful of that country he had left behind he would have had opportunity to return, but all those who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
Abraham did not want to build a City himself, as he knew it would have all the same issues as the other ones. Abraham understood that the Word of God is a blueprint and that this blueprint has foundations. Abraham knew that Gods word would be fulfilled and outworked, and John the apostle in the final cannon of scriptures is given a clearer spiritual sight into those foundation, the Word taught by the apostles who ‘learned’ it direct from the Lamb of God, they became the foundations of a New City: Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
Jonah preached Gods Word and a City came under conviction, the collective conscious was awakened through the sound of the resurrection.
A city can be awakened.
Gods prophet was at one with the only message that City could hear for its repentance, when he was spat after three days out of the deep bowels of that holy whale. Set apart for the purposes of God.
The writer of the Hebrews as the Apostle John does, merges the journey of faith in the hearts and longing of men with that which is revealed by the Word of God at the end of time.
Here we have destiny and purpose. Here we have the glory of God and that which empowers men and women to stand in the marketplace and herald the resurrection from the dead.
The Word of God has sounded to create harmony. YES.
Noah saw the full spectrum of color when God made a covenant with him.
The Word of God has come to create harmony, that the hearts of men and women may respond to the call deep within the holy bowels of God: ‘Come to the wedding feast’ – ‘Come Lord Jesus’
Therefore, the land that Abraham entered by the Word of God, was prophetic concerning a heavenly better country. And we cannot enter the new Jerusalem unless we have a love and respect for the promises made to the descendants of Israel, as every gate of entrance to that heavenly city is headed by a tribe of Israel. Their is no place within the New Jerusalem for replacement theology, as that would mean that God had left his promises behind!
Abraham was confronted straight on with the promises and the counterweight of Gods Word concerning Sin: Death!
Abraham had left behind his old country, and he was now old and had yet to see the promises unto him fulfilled, he only had one light from his own bowels distinct from all the other sons of men.
Abrahams obedience to the Word had a paradox compressed within it.
Gods Word promises man that if he took of the fruit of the tree of good and evil it would bring death. If you break away from the harmony and the innocence of just being my delight, then something in you will die, that spring of Joy that comes from my delight will die, as I cannot sustain forever anything that proceeded from the darkness and a turning away from pure unconditional light: love, life.
Abraham had sinned just like Adam, and doesn’t the arm of masculinity that marches now in western streets attest to the absence of a Father God who has brought deliverance from the paradox, a revelation of the love of God. Ismael, like Esau was a hunter and neither had experienced the working of the Spirit of God to answer the inability of man to build a better City!
But thank God, the promise to Abraham was not just of one star distinct from the darkness, but it was a promise that all like him who ‘look to the heavens’ having heard the Word of God, could by faith also become a Son of Abraham. And does not the Lord have his trophies of grace, redeemed sons of violence/hamas knowing their Father God, through Jesus Christ his Son.
Abraham offers his Son, in the very place a City is yet to come.
He offered his Son figuratively unto death! Figuratively as God knows the cornerstone, the foundation has always been the unity and harmony between the Father & the Son: Thy Word, a trinity of agreement, a trinity of covenant love, a trinity at work through the Word to bring hope to the sons and daughters of men.
The Lamb slain before the foundations of the World.
Figuratively as God knows his Word is the only literal interpretation and the foundation of the City still to come. The devil cannot imitate the flood nor can he plagiarize the crossing of the Red Sea and neither can he ever alter the fabric of all of creation the: The Father and the Son.
Figuratively as Gods Son to come steps in to answer the paradox of Gods word of truth concerning sin.
The power of the gospel is held, is carried by the truth of the resurrection.
The Resurrection is Spiritual truth held within the deep bowels of God since before the World began. The Word of God spoken at Creation is infused, it is the light of the resurrection.
GODS WORD IS REFORMATION
GODS WORD IS THE REDEMPTION OF MANS SOUL
GODS WORD IS THE ONLY TRUTH THAT WILL CARRY YOU INTO ETERNITY WITH HEAVEN AS YOUR HOME
THE LAMB WAS SLAIN BEFORE THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE WORLD IN THE UNSEEN WORLD AS THE WILL OF GOD HAD COMMITTED HIMSELF TO RESOLVE THE PARADOX OF GIVING MANKIND FREE WILL.
Gods WORD is the only remedy to a western world that has lost its moorings, having more liberty than other forms of government. The moral decay we see marching on western streets, under the banner of total darkness and wickedness that radical ideologies have demonstrated, beheading and indiscriminately killing for a creed, a God who is not the God of the living: As its supporting proudly boast, we love dying!! No answer to the Paradox – a Fatherless cry!
Gods Word is sanity. A male is a male and a female is a female.
How perverse the state has become as it has endorsed lies against the unseen that are clearly visible to the naked eye: biological sex is a fact all the sciences attest.
The western world has given itself over to enforcing lies against scientific truth and fact and is negating to protect its citizens from overt racism and support of ideologies that are militant against the fabric and foundations of all are freedoms.
Feminism has no answer to it. Other than to be deceived that gang rape or grooming is not permitted within extremism.
The women of Iran, they do not have the liberty of women in the west. And yet the national team of Spain, state that they will not play for the mens team unless a coach is dismissed who overstepped the ethics with a celebratory kiss.
Where is the uproar that terrorist flags are marched to in are city streets?
Where is the defense of women’s rights that are far less from all those countries the moon is never in full bloom.
When a society rejects the truth of Gods word, then the paradox is that the freedoms it has brought will be overrun by violence and the true meaning of hate, actual hate as opposed to a different opinion.
But Glory to God, we have a hope that is steadfast and certain and gone through the curtain and is touching the throne.
God has given is his HOLY book, the Word of God from generation to generation.
And we know how the story ends.
Hold onto the Word of God, its an offering of your life to God, its a step by step daily journey, its a safe place to dwell and it comes with all the promises of God, of an abundance of life, of resurrection life, a spiritual life that knows forgiveness of sin and an embrace by the Father of this Universe.
Now after Abraham, we have one verse given to Isaac, one given to Jacob and one given to Jospeh. This is three steps into Egypt and God fulfilling his Word, the answer to the paradox, slaves for 400 years, but through the fulfillment of prophecy, freedom, a promised land & Sonship the inheritance.
What kind of Father trains his Son to be a source of terror. Terrorism has no inheritance of love.
There are 7 verse given to Moses.
And the last of the 7 is beautiful as it includes the answer to the paradox. And it is not singular, it is universal for all people, tribes and languages. It is prophetic of the prophet still to be born a son of man, Him who is and was lifted up to draw all men unto him. Him who said ‘Come unto me and learn, for I am lowly of heart and you will find rest for your souls’.
By Faith the people crossed the Redemption Sea: If I be lifted up.
And God maintains the outworking of true faith, by the walls of Jericho coming down, and a harlot and her family being saved! The paradox, she knew that she was dead inside her springs of joy was death – she had been born into a state built on terrorism. Her survival had been knowing the truth, that despite the boasting and the bravado men inside that city could not escape the truth of him in whose image man was made: Male and female. They paid for a temporary fix to the paradox of being separated from the pure love of God.
But she heard the Word of God, she heard about the Red Sea and she had heard about a jealous God who had laws against adultery and betrayal. Her heart had received the Words of resurrection life, despite them being written on stone & despite living in super thick impenetrable walls.
And this word of God she heard, brought more than conviction, it brought love and a grafting into the harmony of Gods people and promises.
She is a type of the bride of Christ, she who was first to meet him from the garden tomb, the stone rolled away.
The trinity at work and then the Church – 12: Jew and Gentile included in father Abraham.
And the trinity is always at work.
And then the covenant promise to Abraham concerning returning to the land.
Moses 7 – The sabbath of Gods rest, the finished work of Jesus Christ that prophet who came into the world who is the Son and Word of God: at 33 years old outside the city walls of Jerusalem: three words he cried: IT IS FINISHED, the paradox answered: And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
The 7th verse contains: the people – and it is a Roman gentile who first confesses to the answered paradox, despite his foreign gods and occupation, he heard the cry from the deep bowels of the innocent Son of God: A man rightly related to God has just died, removing the curse from mankind of having liberty but having chosen rebellion to Him who gave it.
A 12 & a 7 right on the doorstep of the great cloud of witnesses, all attesting that is is the Word of God who has reconciled us to the Father, and it is the Word of God who was slain to answer the paradox of Gods righteous anger with mans corruption of his ways.
Thank God for a converted religious terrorist called Saul, who came to SEE that the unseen word of faith had become flesh and blood to answer his need for all the goodness to be from him and him alone: It is Finished.
The good seed is the new covenant truth of Him who died for are sins, of the Word made flesh to be the sacrifice for are rebellion to his promise of life. This is the Word we keep alive in are hearts, as it never becomes through flesh and blood as Paul says to the foolish Galatians but it is always through the hearing of Gods Word of faith: The Lamb slain before the foundations of the world.
Fruit-fullness is keeping the Word that is resurrection life in clear view.
Preaching is the manifestation of the unseen man, the Word of God through whom all creation made.
And as God has gathered his people back into the land he has promised them. We ought to be the more certain that his returning to this world is not far away.
Trusting in God, brings liberty. Pilgrim Fathers within the foundations – The Word of God never ceases to be true, Moses after 400 years saw it fulfilled. But rejecting Gods Word brings the opposite to liberty.
But the Word of God preached is an awakening unto all who hear.
Note:
I was in Hebrews Ch 11 on Thursday morning before any visits to this site, and the 12 & 7 had already blessed me.
eternalrays 