Hebrews 11:4-7

You ready? Nope. All right. Well, we are at Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 11 verses four through seven. So good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions. Nathan is getting there. There we go. Hebrews chapter 11 verses four through seven. We're going to have some coffee. We'll pray. And we'll talk today about Abel's sacrifice. So let's have some coffee. We'll pray. We'll get into God's word. No coffee. Unless you brought ice cream to it, sure. And not put an ice cream in my coffee. OK, let's pray.
Yes. Well, I got some at Costco yesterday. You're right. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. And we pray, Lord, that we would have faith, that we would trust you. Lord, we pray that we would follow in the path of those who have gone before us, hoping in Jesus Christ and in his name we pray. Amen. OK, well, after you finish yawning, I'll let you read verses four through seven. Okay, that's a long bit.
By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, to which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testified of his gifts and through it he, being dead, still speaks. By faith, Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him. For before he was taken, he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But 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 diligently seek him. By faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for saving of his household by which he No. Really, um, and amended this one amended, amended, I thought it was ruled in and the world and became heir of the richness, which is according to the faith. which is according to faith. Yeah. Okay. Heir of the righteousness, which is according to faith.
So yeah, I've been underlining while you've been reading, right? For some reason, I don't have this part underlined in my Bible, which is interesting. I have lots of notes on the side, but not the underline. So we need to ask ourselves our three questions. A, what is this about? B, what is the and C, what are we called to do? Good. All right.
So this is, Continuing on from verses one through three. So chapter 11 of Hebrews is typically called something like the Hall of Faith or something like this, right? And we find ourselves looking at three different people this morning. So three different faithful people and what does it teach us about faith? So let's go ahead and talk about the first one. Verse four, who is it talking about?
Abel. Okay. So what's going on with Abel? Why is he here? because he sacrificed a sacrifice and it was pleasing to God, which means he had a good testimony. OK, well, here's the thing. Cain made a sacrifice, too. So what's the difference between the two of them? Why did God accept Cain's sacrifice or Abel's sacrifice, but not Cain's? Oh, hmm. Cain didn't sacrifice his very best.
Well, I'm not sure that he didn't sacrifice his best. I mean, he was like one of the farmers who don't have livestock. He was a row crop farmer. He had grain and there was plenty of sacrifices in the Old Testament for grain sacrifices. I think it was he was offering it without faith, without hoping and trusting in the Lord, not believing in his goodness.
Let's go ahead and move on to the next person. By the way, notice Abel, his sacrifice, though he's dead, still speaks. His faith lives on. Okay, so now Enoch. Enoch, what's this got to do about faith here? He just, he lived to like 300 something years old and then he was just gone. No more. Cause the Lord took him. Yeah. Yeah. Well, at least Elijah, there was like a fire chariot, right? Yeah. Enoch, we just don't know. And he was no more. That's all the Hebrew says. Right. But notice, right.
Why, why was he taken? where before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God. Well, how do you, how do you please God? The second, the third part kind of does that. Well, how did, send that out for me. The third part says that, um, pleasing that as you follow him continually, you pursue God's blessing. Okay, yeah, so that's what I have underlined in verse 6. But without faith, it is impossible to please God. So why was Enoch pleasing to God? Because he had faith. For he who comes to God must Believe that he is right.
Can you have faith in God if you don't actually believe that God exists? No, you can't. An atheist can't really please God if he doesn't think God's there. Well, yeah, that's what an atheist can't have faith in God because they don't believe that God is there.
There's all sorts of people who even today will come to the church and they want morality or they like the charity or something like that. Maybe they like the music or some people will go to different churches because they like The smells and the sights and it's like an entertainment show they like looking at the stained-glass windows and stuff, but they don't actually believe in God I Don't have faith in Christ and so without faith you gotta believe that God is and that he is a what do you what do you need to believe that he is a last part of verse 6 Last part of verse 6 I just said that he is a rewarder to those who seek him.
Yeah, that he's a rewarder of those who seek him. Will you seek him if you don't believe in him? No. No. Right. This is actually one of those things, right? You believe. And so you seek after him. You follow him. You go, you try to. It's not that you seek him so that you believe. Yeah. Right. The believing comes before the seeking. Good. What about verse seven?
Now we're talking about Noah. What's Noah's faith got to do with all this? Like just, you know survived flood something good. Well, yeah, he survived the flood Do you know how long it was between the Lord telling Noah? The floods coming and the water started Over a hundred years People probably thought he was out of his rocker right but yet Why didn't Noah keep preaching righteousness and warning people and building the ark? Well yeah, but people hear God's word all the time and they don't do anything. Because he had faith. Because he had faith. Because he had faith.
So I noticed verse 7. By faith Noah being divinely warned of things not yet seen. Oh, that sounds familiar. It's almost like verse 1. Faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen. Theme it's almost like the author of Hebrews is tying together verse 1 in verse 7 Yeah, that's the whole point of this right is gotta have faith gotta have faith he was seems like it's just like the theology of Well, this whole section is the theology of faith about the whole point of of the book of Hebrews of faith in Jesus Christ, specifically, our high priest. And so, notice also in verse 7, there's a very important part here, right?
So, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness, which is according to faith. Did you hear that? He received righteousness by faith, faith. That's how we receive righteousness. We trust God and out of that faith in God, then we act. So, uh, okay.
You're going to walk out of here. Mom's going to say, well, Bubba, tell me what was that whole thing about? Don't give me a long thing. Just Bubba, just give it to me in like five to seven words. Yeah. Um, to believe God, we need to follow God, we need to believe in Him, and have faith. You gotta have faith. Wonderful.
What would you underline as the best verse that summarizes this section? I think I'd underline verse 7 and maybe a bit of 6. Oh, you're a cheater. You must have looked over at my Bible. Yep, we underlined very similar things. I especially have verse 6 underlined and the second half of verse 7. Is it double underlined? Nope, just all of verse 6. So then how do you know it's especially 6?
I don't know. Good question. Okay, well let's go ahead and go with calling, Jesus Christ, covenant, whatever you seek called to do. Maybe have faith. Maybe have faith. All right, so you can drum that up in yourself, right? No. You can work it up. No. I can preach it to you till you get all emotionally excited and you believe. No. So how do you have faith then? By having faith in God. How do you get that faith? You have to believe in God. But how do you believe in God without faith? You don't. So how do you get faith? Believing in God. But how does that happen?
Because of God. Ding, ding, ding, ding. Yeah, because regeneration, being born again, this Holy Spirit breathing new life into you. Now you have faith. Yep. Right. That's one of the reasons why we desperately got to pray. But now that we have faith, we need to exercise that faith by seeking. Yeah. Yeah. Right. That's that's a living faith. Faith that seeks after him. You ready to pray? Yep. You want to or you want me to? You can. OK.
God, we thank you for giving us the breath of life. Lord, we cannot drum up in ourselves faith. It is truly your gift. And so, Father, we pray that you would please help us. Help us, Lord, to walk in your ways, to seek you. Lord, thank you for the righteousness that comes by faith. Thank you. that you have let us hear your word, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Lord, please, I don't know who's listening to this right now. I don't know who is just one like Gain, who seems to just be going through the motions. Lord, I pray that you would please work in their hearts to teach them to have true saving faith. Open their ears, enlighten their eyes. In Jesus's name, amen. May God bless you. May you walk in faith. May you seek after God by faith. I'll see you next time. That's right. Bye. Adios.