By Faith: Abel, Enoch, and Noah
First B Jackson
2019-12-08

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alright. We are on. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.

Good to see you all. Really, really. I'm glad to see you. Hey, would you stand and we will sing together joyful joyful we adore the God of glory, Lord of love. Let's sing it like we mean it.

Alright. Here we go.

Amen. Y'all can have a seat, have a few announcements this morning. We'll see what they are. Potatoes in a pot.

I don't know why. Yeah.

I mean, I and I'm not even sure what's on the menu tomorrow but there will be a meal and there will be music and there's a message where part two in the book of Micah. God keeps his promises. He is faithful Amen.

To keep his promises. So please join us tomorrow at six. If you're able, we're there. Meal music message from Micah tomorrow night, Monday night. And that happens at the same time as Awana.

And there's a there's one of the games that they play. It looks like a four way tug of war going on right there in the middle of this room. There will be Awana tomorrow night. So we're pouring scripture into the lives, into the minds of kids to reach their hearts and it's a great place. The games and the scripture and council time.

It's all fun. So, come on out for that kids and for the adults too. Volunteers. It takes a lot of volunteers and I appreciate y'all doing that. So, there's something going on here.

There's something ongoing there and all over the church once it gets going. Jackson Hole Men's Alliance, Ephesians study is going on. This week, I'm actually speaking this week that we're doing Ephesians five twenty one through about six ten or so and that is going to be right here at 06:00 actually in the Fellowship Hall 06:00 in the morning for Jackson Hole Men's Alliance formerly known as men's fraternity. The angel tree is back there and there are some chalkboards up on the pillars out there too and there are lots of tags. If you want to be a part of blessing the needy families in the area, you're welcome to grab a tag and bring it back here by the twentieth with a wrap gift with the tag still with it because that helps us know who it's supposed to go to.

It's kind of hard if we don't know who it's supposed to go to. We have to figure it out but the Angel Tree is back there. Tanya's in charge if you have any questions. So, she should be able to answer em. If you didn't catch pancakes, bacon, and sausage on your way in this morning from the Boy Scouts, they are making pancakes and bacon and sausage down the hall.

You're welcome to get up and go get that anytime in between now and the end of the second service or end of the connect hour, which happens between services. If there are other announcements that I've forgotten, and there most certainly are, they will be in the printed bulletin. So grab a bulletin and you'll know what's going on. Anybody got one that I've forgotten about that I need to mention from the front? Are you all awake yet?

Yeah. Okay. One person is. This is the greet one another time. Now, would you all stand and greet one another and then we'll bring you back together with another season song.

Chili cook off. I don't know when it is.

Thank

you, Carl. Those little things. The little things. Thank you. Good morning.

How are you? I did. Thank you very much.

From Psalm 62, yes, my soul find rest in God. My hope comes from him. Lord, truly, our hope does come from you. You are the source of hope, of love, of joy, of peace, of all the things right now that center around Christmas, it centers around you. Amen.

Spirit of spirit on the living God come fall fresh on me come wake me from my Let's sing. Spirit come and fill. Spirit come and fill this place.

Let your glory

night.

Let's sing that again. Our prayer, our song.

Spirit of the living God, come

I was, thinking this morning that, like, for for some, it feels like the most wonderful time of the year. Right? And for others, it it... It's a painful reminder of of loss and heartache or grief. And that's why this song has been sort of just circling and and stirring me lately.

But from the Psalm, it says, why am I discouraging? Why is my heart so sad? I'll put my hope in God. I'll praise him, my savior, my God. But it's choosing to praise.

It's choosing to like the like the bridge says, I choose to praise, to glorify, to glorify the name of all names, and nothing can stand against that when we're in that low, that valley time that we worship our way through. And so I want to encourage us as a church to be worshiping our way through life. The the good stuff, the highs, you know, when things are great, but also through those valley times as as well.

I count on one thing. The same God who never fails will not fail me now. He won't fail me now, and I'm waiting. The same God who's never late

And I choose to praise

to glorify, glorify the name of all nations.

That nothing can stand against, and I choose to praise

to glorify, glorify the name of all men. But nothing can stand against. Yes. I will lift you high

Y'all can have a seat. I'll invite the frontline team to come forward and would you pray with me? God, we thank you for the joy of the season and lord, as some of us are grieving right now and our hearts are heavy, I pray that we would say, yes, lord, we will choose by faith to see that which we're we're not seeing right now, that which we do not see at the moment, lord. We trust that you are good. We trust that you are faithful.

We trust that you are looking out for us. So, in in Jesus name, lord, we can trust in that. So, lord, I ask that you'd bless those who are going through a season of difficulty and grief right now and for those who are celebrating extreme joy, lord, for pastor, for Carl and me. We are to rejoice with those who rejoice as Christians not just pastors but we're also to mourn with those who mourn. Could could you give us the discernment lord to know which is which I pray lord that you would be that you'd be with us and would be able to lead our friends to the center of your will.

Lord, I thank you. I ask that you would take these offerings lord and do with them as you please that you would distribute them lord for the best purposes around the globe lord that you would advance your good gospel to the places that do not yet know it that individual lives would be touched from here in this place today, right now, in this building all the way to the ends of the world at the pace that you desire. Lord, may your will be done in your way through your obedience servants. In Jesus name, we ask that you would bless and multiply this offering. Amen.

One day when day heaven was filled with his phrases. One day when Satan was as black as complete,

Now, usually, right after the offering is where we send all the kids downstairs real quick but there's one child that is going to be baptized today. So, I'm not going to send anybody down yet. They are changing clothes right now. We've got another child, Lucas Landis, that's going to come up with Ian and his dad, Ian and his mom, Lisa and they're going to light our Advent wreath. They're around here somewhere.

There's a microphone up here and a match, Ian. It's the second Sunday in Advent.

Good morning, everybody. This Sunday, the second in Advent, we light the candle of peace As we prepare to celebrate the coming of the Prince of Peace, we're reminded that God's timing is always perfect and his provision is always sufficient. Second Thessalonians three sixteen says this, now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.

Amen. Did any of y'all wanna say, and also with you? Amen. Thank you, Ian and Lisa and I'm going invite Dan and Jonathan Tuls forward

Good morning. Can you say your name, Jonathan?

Hello. I'm Jonathan.

Would you like to give your testimony and tell people why you're here this morning? No. Is it okay if I do that for you? Jonathan, I remember that you prayed the prayer to become a Christian for the first time at night with your mother, but you've claimed that it happened at Awana when you were a kindergartner two years ago. And true story, yesterday we were talking about baptism and Jonathan looked up at me and he said, if it weren't for Awana, I definitely wouldn't be a Christian.

So it's had an impact on your life, hasn't it? And but you told me that I came home from from work the other day and you said, I wanna get baptized on Sunday. And I said, why? And he said, well, I was riding in the car and I was hearing a song on the radio and and and I just felt like the Holy Spirit was telling me that it was time to do this. What was the song that you heard?

I was actually not in the car. I was at home.

At home. You heard a song? Yeah. What song was

God rest you merry gentlemen.

Yeah. So it was a Christmas song. So Jonathan, you believe that you're a sinner saved by grace? Yeah. Yes.

You believe that Jesus lived a perfect life and died and was raised again to give you forgiveness for your sins? Yeah. Amen. And and you're here today out of obedience to proclaim to the people in our church that you are a Christian and you wanna follow God with your life.

Mhmm.

Can I pray for you? Lord, your servant Jonathan here is acting out of obedience to show the world that he believes in you and he wants to follow you with his life. I pray that you'd bless him for that. Would you take him today and make him a warrior for you? In Jesus name.

Amen. By the profession of your faith, I baptize you in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit.

Yeah. Dan says if there's anybody else, he's in the pool and wet already. So is there anybody else? Alright, hold on to that thought. I I wore something under this that I can change into real quick too at the end of the sermon, alright?

Thank you. Thank you for doing that. Amen. Now, it's time I think for the kiddos to head downstairs. One of em soggy.

Amen. Amen. Now, there's a lot going on in this season There's a lot going on around here. There's a lot going on in town. As the kids make their way out, can we just take, I don't know how long this is going to be.

I don't have a timer but can we just take a second center ourselves and just take it easy for a minute. You breathe deep That's what I'm going to do God help us Amen. Amen. Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11.

This week, last week, I put all of Hebrews 11 in there, right? I put it in the in the bulletin. There was a fold out. It was four pages long and some of you came in and when you came in, you said, there's no way he's getting through all this and I didn't. I just did the first couple verses and the last couple of verses of Hebrews 11.

Hebrews 11 is known as the Hall of Faith or the Heroes of Faith. I think it'd be better to call it the heroes and heroines of the faith because there are men and women in the list but we went through just a couple of verses last week. This week, we're going to go through five more. When I came in yesterday, the sermon was 35 verses long. When I left yesterday, it was five verses long.

So the Hall of Faith, we're going to get three specific examples, just the first three specific examples. They are up to the flood, and then two general statements, and we're going to see how we can take one of those general statements and see if it will give us any kind of direction. That's what I hope for. So, Hebrews eleven one and two and thirty nine and forty from last week is this, by faith we're unified with all believers of all times because what bonds us together is faith in God. It does have to be in the right thing and I mentioned last week and I'll probably mention again that the word for faith is both the subjective faith that we have, that we can place in something.

All of us have been given a certain measure of faith by God. I think there are people who do have more of a capacity and others have less of a capacity but we've all been given some measure of faith and we can exercise that and place that faith wherever we choose to do so. But Ephes, the the word for faith also is about the faithfulness of God and if our subjective faith is placed in the objective faithfulness of God, the goodness of God, we belong to the same family. Through Jesus, there had to be a sacrifice and he's it and by this time in Hebrews, we've already heard he's our great high priest and he is our ultimate sacrifice once for all. By faith, we're unified with all believers of all times and this is the way it starts off.

Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for. Some of your translations might say evidence. Some of your translations might say guarantee. It's the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen or not yet seen is better because they're coming. Though it tarries, wait for it.

Faith is assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen for by it, that is by faith, for by faith the ancients or the elders gained approval. And then we're going to start a list. Now before we start that list, we hit our first general statement in Hebrews eleven three. By faith, we, now, this is the hall of heroes and the hall of heroines and the hall of faith with the very first people that are mentioned as believing by faith are we. So this is a letter that was written to Christians, first century Christians of a Jewish background.

They were being tempted to step away from the way, the truth, the life, the Christ, and go back to the ceremonial rights of the religion that they had practiced that was pointing them to Jesus. Alright. By faith, we understand that we were sorry. By faith, we understand that worlds were prepared by the word of God. What does Genesis one say?

It says that God said, let there be light and there was light, you know, and then what does John one one say? In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and so, Christ being agent of creation. It's already been presented that way in Hebrews but this general statement I think is really important and we'll come back to it either next week or a couple weeks later. By faith, we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. So that what is seen is not made out of things which are visible.

If you hold on to that, there are things right now that will come to pass that you can't see from here, right? What is seen was not made out of things which are visible. Your circumstances may not look great or on the other hand, they may look great but you can't see what's coming down the road. So, not just in creation. I think that the text will bear out that this is talking about stepping out into that which is not yet seen.

A general statement right there. And next, we've got a specific example. Number one, this is just the second generation of human beings ever. This is Abel. Abel, Adam and Eve's son, Abel.

And it says, By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, his brother. By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain. So, this is from Genesis, Genesis four. So, it came about in the course of time. We've already hit Genesis one by the way in that general statement about God creating ex Nihilo from what was nothing.

He created something, everything actually. So, it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground and 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. Okay. So, Abel is the one that the writer of Hebrews is mentioning as a specific example number one here. By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain.

We don't know anymore about Cain's sacrifice. Fruits of the ground, not fat, whatever. There are lot of people who make a lot of it but the text doesn't say anymore than what what I just read you. 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 which, what is that? Through his faith, grammatically, it can be through which, his faith, through his faith, he obtained a testimony that he was righteous. Technically, it could also be through his sacrifice but his sacrifice is an act of faith. So, I think it's both. Through his faith which is evidence by his sacrifice, he obtained testimony that he was righteous.

God testifying about his gifts. The writer of Hebrews testifying about it too. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering. That is the Lord looked favorably upon that which Abel had given because he did it in faith. We don't know anything more about Cain but this, it says, but for Cain and for his offering, he had no regard.

We don't know why. Was it because it was vegetables? Was it because it was not really the best of his vegetables? Was it because it from the text of the Hebrews, it looks like it was not done in faith because the two are put up against each other in contrast. Abel, God had regard for Abel's offering and not for Cain's.

Now, this one's a tough one but the exclusivity of the gospel is really bothersome in our day and age. I don't know why that it is. I just know that it is and this is what Abel offered by faith and his subjective faith was placed in the faithfulness of God. He gave of his first and of his back portions but for Canaan, for his offering, God had no regard. So, God testifying about Abel's gifts and through faith, though Abel is dead, Abel still speaks because of what he did and how he did it by faith.

It says through faith right there. So, the Lord had no regard for Abel and his offering but for Cain and for his offering, he had no regard since Cain, so Cain became very angry. So, Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. He was upset by. He was upset that Abel had done what was pleasing to God and he had not.

We don't know anymore about that but we do know from the next verses that God was speaking to both of them and then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? What are you upset about? I care about you. What are you upset about?

If you do well and I think I can insert here or do well, if you acted in faith because it's in Hebrews and it's about by faith. If you do well or if you act out of faith, would you would not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. I love you and I care about you and I don't want you to fall. I don't want you to be harmed.

I don't want you to hurt. Wouldn't it be better to walk by faith? Sin's crouching at the door and its desire, sin's desire is for you. Sin's desire is for you, but you must master it. It's on it's on you and you gotta master that.

And Cain then told Abel, his brother, what God had said. Cain told Abel, his brother, what God had said. And it came about that when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed it. Oh, that could have gone a so much better way. What would he have had to do for it to go a better way?

Act in faith, repent, rest, trust, trust God. So, here are specific examples. Abel, his act that demonstrated his faith was that he gave up his the firstlings of his flock and the outcome for him was he was murdered. Is that a prosperity gospel sermon right there or what? But it's the first example, specific example we get.

Number two, not quite as long as that one by faith, Enoch. Do you know who Enoch is? So, Enoch was the name of one of Cain's kids but that's not the Enoch we're talking about. This guy is seven down from Adam. It's from Genesis five.

So, we've hit Genesis one. We've hit Genesis four. We've hit now Genesis five and this is what it says. Enoch lived sixty five years and he became the father of Methuselah, oldest man ever. And then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah and he had other sons and daughters.

So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty five years. We hear that and then from Hebrews, I want to let Hebrews tell the story and we'll go back and look at it. By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death and he was not found because God took him. Okay? That's weird.

For he obtained the witness that before his being taken up, he was pleasing to God. Okay. Enoch walked with God. This is the Old Testament statement of that. Enoch walked with God and he was not.

For God took him. That's it. He was and then he wasn't. For God took him. That's the only explanation we have.

I know it's weird but that's what it says. Jewish believers at this time, our Jewish background folks at this time had the book of Enoch. Actually, a couple of books of Enoch and they read em and studied them and it was a normal thing for them to know who Enoch was and there are more stories there than most of y'all or I know about but Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him and that's what the writer of Hebrews picks up on. If you look in the New Testament, he's mentioned a couple other places. I'm not going to read all this.

I see your eyes crossing back there. It's hard to fit it all on but when he began his ministry, Jesus himself was about 30 years of age and then, since it's Christmas, I included this part in here. He was about 30 years of age being as was supposed the son of Joseph. Okay, this is the genealogy of Joseph. I mean, genealogy Jesus through Joseph and you get all the way down and it says, the son of Enoch.

Enoch's in the line of Jesus. And then again, Jude which was a book that was written about in the 8590 range somewhere in there. Fifteen years maybe after Hebrews that we're studying. It's coming pretty fast. We'll be on that book before long.

It was also about these men that Enoch wrote. This is about... This is the books of Enoch that he's talking about and he quotes from the books of Enoch and Jude. Jude's real short book in the fourteenth verse he says that. But this is all we know about him from our canon, from our Bible Old Testament.

He didn't walk with God. He was not for God took him. So, we do know that by faith, we understand this and by faith, Abel offered that and through faith though Abel is dead, he still speaks and by faith Enoch was taken up. We know that and so my second specific example now is on the board Enoch walked with God. If you listen into the Old Testament and E was pleasing to God if you're taking it from the New Testament and he was taken up.

That's all we know about it. Awol is what we would list him as, I think but it it said specifically, he was taken up. So, and then here's our second general statement. I hope to hold on to this one a little bit. At the end, I'm going come back to it.

So, Ed, without faith, it's impossible to please him and him there is God. Without faith, it's impossible to please God For he who comes to God must believe that he is, that God exist but can't just stop there. James actually says, the devils believe that God exist and they shutter. So, he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those who seek him. If you take it back to Cain and Abel, Abel offered a gift through faith and he believed that God was a rewarder of those who sought after him.

But apparently, Cain didn't. It doesn't explicitly say that but he had no regard for his offering. It's tough. Without faith, it's impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he's a reward of those who seek him. That's another general statement I'll come back to Two observations are that.

You have to believe that he is in order to come to him and that he's a rewarder of those who seek him. If you think God is a cosmic killjoy, you think he exist but that he just exist to slap you around. Or to punish that he's mean. Then, that's not a that's an Arab view of God first of all. It's not pleasing and it's not helpful, not helpful to you.

So, specific example number three, moving right along. By faith, Noah. Oh, good. Noah, we know the story. We've seen it on the murals of a thousand different Sunday school rooms, right?

By faith, Noah. Genesis five, we're introduced to Noah, his genealogy, or the genealogies, and then an introduction to who he was but Genesis six, we see the corruption of mankind and this is this is not long. You know, not many generations after creation. They lived a long time way back then but things were different but corruption of mankind in Genesis six and then we see this but Noah, it's corruption of mankind above that and then it says, but big, strong disjunctive right there but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. We don't know why.

It doesn't say why but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord and these are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man. Blameless in his time and Noah walked with God. It said the same thing about Enoch, right? It had said the same thing about Adam by the way too that Adam walked with God and then he sinned and fell away and you know, the whole kick down of Eden and all that but Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time.

Noah walked with God. By faith, Noah being warned, technically, it's having been warned but being warned by God about things not yet seen, we see this in Genesis six also and then God said to Noah because Noah was a righteous man and the world was corrupt and God said to Noah, the the end of all flesh has come before me for the Earth is filled with violence because of them. I mean, it all the way back to Cain, right? Cain slew Abel. Earth is filled with violence because of them and behold, I'm about to destroy them with the earth.

Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood. You shall make the ark with rooms. You shall cover it inside and out with pitch and by faith, Noah, having been warned about things not yet seen, it wasn't even raining, right? Told him a long time ahead of time. Go ahead and prepare and then, he acted in faith by faith.

Noah, it says it next actually. Genesis six twenty two says, thus, Noah did according to all that God had commanded him, so he did. Oh, may that be said of us. Thus, Ray did according to all that God had commanded him, so he did. By faith, Noah, having been warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence, prepared an ark for the salvation of his household and reverence right there, the word is is the only time it's used in the Bible.

It's the only time this word is used and you means good and means, well, this is what it means. It means reverence or fear, but it's a holy, a good fear. Good. You in the front. Fear.

A holy fear, I would call reverence or awe for God. And having been warned by God, he, and this is for you grammar nerds, the heiress passive participle, numb... Numb... Masculine singular. He, having been moved by reverence, and that is one of those ambiguous things that having been moved by reverence is it could have been God that moved him, the objective faithfulness of God, but it was also his subjective response to what God was saying that he revered God and he acted out of that and having been moved by reverence but here it is by faith, Noah.

Having been warned by God about things not yet seen and having been moved by reverence, he prepared an ark. By faith, Noah prepared an ark for the salvation of his household and then the next thing blew my mind. I probably stayed on it for several hours yesterday and it says, in reverence, he prepared an ark for the salvation of his household which it did actually. His obedience and his preparation did actually save his household and it says by which he, small h, that's Noah, by which he condemned the world. Wow.

His righteous act was condemning to the world. That that bothered me for a long time. I I don't wanna be involved in condemning the world, but there are two paths you can go by. There really are. There's a divide and what you do with Jesus, this is the point of Hebrews.

What you do with Jesus is the divide and so, Genesis seven is a flood. Genesis eight, the flood subsides. Genesis nine, God's covenant and promise and it's forward looking and he's not going to destroy the world that way again. But I still come back to this. I keep coming back.

By which he condemned the world? How can that be? Well, Matthew 12, this is Jesus talking. He's talking to the Pharisees and when he's talking to the Pharisees and the generation that surround him, they're listening to him but they're rejecting what he's saying. They're rejecting him out of hand and so, this is this is there are three examples that I found that I could think of where it shows that righteousness condemns.

It's opposite. The men of Nineveh, we know them from book of Jonah, right? The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment. This generation being the folks he's talking to. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment in that great and mighty day of the Lord when we are there at the judgment.

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment and the men of Nineveh will condemn that generation, this generation because the men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah. And you're not. That's what Jesus was saying. You're not doing that The word came through Jonah reluctant as he was and they repented and behold, something greater than Jonah is right here. This is Jesus carrying this message.

The next says, the queen of the South, Queen of Sheba, will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it because she came from the ends of the Earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. They, he's talking about the folks of Nineveh, Old Testament folks, you know, being people of faith and being included in. We're unified with all believers of all time, right? And he's talking about the Queen of Sheba coming from the South and she's going to be there and she will be condemning them because of her acting in faith, because of her faith, I should say. And if you disagree with Matthew, Luke has the same story.

He reverses the order. Queen of Sheba, queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Behold, something greater than Solomon's here and the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. So, by faith, we just have to take this by faith. Noah, having been warned by God about things not yet seen and having been moved by reverence, he prepared an ark for the salvation of his household and by that act and it's exactly the same way.

It can be either by preparing the ark or by his faith and I think that it's both. By his faith and acting it out. You know, faith without works is dead. He condemned the world. That's hard.

Last place I'm going to show you in the New Testament where that concept comes about is this. First John three says, for this is the message which you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another. Amen. Not as Cain. We're coming full circle here from example three back up to example one.

Not as Cain who was of the evil one. Sin is crouching at the door. All you have to do is repent. Look to God. Trust.

Not as Cain who was of the evil one and he slew his brother and for what reason did he slay him? Because Cain, his Cain's deeds were evil and his brother's were righteous and Abel's righteous action condemned him and he felt that condemnation and the way that he acted out was not by faith. He acted out and killed him. It's just the way it is. If you're gonna if you're gonna be righteous, there will be a divide.

Now, you don't have to be mean about it. You just act righteously and go for what God is saying. Your relationship with God is paramount and then people will either see it and be attracted to God by way of that or they will be repelled from it and that's a very difficult thing for me. I'm going go back and tell a story. The Lord was pleading with Cain.

Why is it that you're angry and why has your countenance fallen? I know you're upset, and I know that I care about you. If you act in faith or if you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? Can you just trust me? Can you just trust me?

And if you don't do well, then sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you must master it. The only way to master it is to bow the knee to God, to trust Him. Cain told Abel his brother and then he killed him. Came up when they were in the field. Cain rose up against Abel's brother and killed him.

So this is the last little part here and became he became an heir. Noah became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. I will say this, that when you act on faith, when you by faith, in his case, prepare the ark or it might be for you, forgive your mother, it might be go to the mission field, it might be grab an angel tree tag, it might be anything. I don't know what it is. Whatever it is that God's directing you, when you by faith do as God directs.

It increases your faith. Now, the outcome may not always be pretty from an earthly standpoint but Noah became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith and in the New Testament, we see that righteousness is derived only from the righteousness of Christ but it's accessible through faith. Abraham is going to be our example down the way here next. Abraham believed God in the New Testament says, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. It was imputed to him as righteousness.

Christ's righteousness is the gift of God for trusting him in faith. So, here are the specific examples. Abel gave the first of his flock and he was murdered. Enoch walked with God and he was taken up and Noah prepared an ark and saved his household but also condemned the world. That's tough, man.

I'm going go back to that general statement. Actually, I'm going go back to the next general statement. I'll come back to the first three, maybe next week or two weeks from now. And without faith, it's impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those who seek him. If we spread that out like this, I wanna without faith, it's impossible to please God for he who comes to him must believe that he is, not stop there though and that he's a rewarder of those who seek him.

Don't be afraid of God. Lean into him. You may have had a bad example. You may have had a bad fatherly example. You hear God call father God and it just destroys you and you think, I'm he's something to be scared and he's something to recoil from instead of something to lean into but he's a reward of those who seek after him.

So, without faith, possible to please God. So, do you believe that God is? I'm going turn em for questions. Do you believe that God exist? Do you believe that God is?

And then, do you believe that he rewards those who seek him? Those are the two questions right there. They're faith questions but do you believe that God is and do you believe that he rewards those who seek him? Contemplate that. Contemplate it this week.

The one who comes to God will do that and they will do it by faith. It won't be by fear. It'll be by faith. It's stepping out on faith. So, what would it look like for you to seek after God I think that that's the last of it.

Yeah, are you seeking him? Are you currently seeking him? So, this this was written to people who knew and had trusted in Christ but they were being tempted to fall away and so, is that you? Are you currently seeking after God? Everybody, almost everybody, not everybody.

Almost everybody in this list will see has some sin to deal with, you know, everybody in the list from here on out. We see faults and flaws but their faith is what put them in this list and each of you has been given a measure of faith. What are you doing with it? Are you seeking after God? I'll invite the band to come on back up.

And we're going to sing, I know whom I have believed, I think. Yeah. Would you stand with us?

I know not why God's wondrous grace to me happy,

Tanya's waving angel tree tags at me at the back back there. I've got a I've got one more thing that I thought of during that song that I know whom I have believed in. If there's doubt, if there's doubt there, would y'all come talk? Let's talk about the doubt. Let's talk about what God can do with that doubt.

Let's talk about that. And considering the whole thing, what was heaviest for me this week was by his righteous action, he condemned the world and I don't want to be involved in that. But considering the two choices are either you're going to be condemning them by your righteous acts or you're going to be condemned by it. Does that make sense? That's why I say, if there's doubt there, let's talk about it.

In Jesus' name, Lord, I pray. Faith is the assurance of things that are hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. May we live out our faith in a way lord that draws people to you. Amen.