Christ’s Superiority Acknowledged

Well, if you haven't already, turn in your Bible, please to Hebrews chapter 11 and prepare to hear something you maybe have never heard before. And I will warn you that typically that's a bad thing. It's not good if you're hearing a well known passage. I always say this. This is the worst compliment I could ever get as a preacher. Something I never like hearing is when people say, I've never seen that before. I know you think that means I taught you something, but what I hear when you say that is maybe I'm making stuff up because Christians should know these things. And I don't want to make stuff up. I don't want to be novel, I don't want to be interesting, I don't want to be groundbreaking. I don't want to do some new thing. The Gospel is old and I want to preach the old gospel, okay? So I have no desire to impress you with something that is fresh or new.

So I always tell you that this old preacher wants to stay old fashioned, okay? Because the gospel is old. Because it's the give me that old time religion, okay? When you hear people saying new things from the Bible, watch out. My professor used to say, beware the novel. Beware of the latest, greatest thing in Christianity, because Christianity is old and it doesn't change. The Gospel doesn't change. So I'm going to say some new things today, but they're not new. My hope is the opposite of that. My hope is to get our church thinking back to the old, correct way of seeing the hall of faith in Hebrews, chapter 11.

Because typically the chapter 11 preaching is about the people listed in chapter 11. Usually the main character in devotions and Bible study material of chapter 11 is about the people listed here, Abel, these people. But what if I told you the main character of chapter 11 of Hebrews is Jesus and not the people that are listed? Are you able to do that? Like right now? If I stopped right now and said, I'm not going to preach the sermon yet, it's your job to explain to somebody who's new to the Christian faith. You have to explain to them. When you're talking about Abel and you're talking about Gideon and you're talking about Abraham and the people listed that they are not the main character of the text. The text is not about them, it is about Jesus, would you be able to prove how that's true?

Because the author of Hebrews, in my opinion now, and I think it's a solid opinion, it's an. It's More than just an educated guess. It's something that I believe we're supposed to do with all of Scripture. The way I'm going to explain in a moment what we're doing is the author of Hebrews is not taking a break from a book where the entirety of the book is to focus on the superiority of Christ over everything else. To now take a chapter and talk about something else. Just like in First Corinthians 13, the love chapter. It's not about love. The Corinthian church was doing everything wrong and they weren't doing love correctly. Chapter 13 of the book of First Corinthians is to correct the bad exercise of love.

Or there's only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. The text in Timothy, people think, well, that's anti Catholic. No, it isn't. There weren't any Catholic churches when Paul said that to Timothy, it wasn't about the Mary and whether there's other mediators between God and man. Even though it's true, that's not its intent.

So I'm going to do the thing. I'm sorry in advance, those of you who are sick of hearing it, but hear it again. Hermeneutics. And by the way, I was thinking of autumn. I don't know how you're going to spell hermeneutics. Just say interpretation, because that's a word that the folks who are hearing impaired know, that word interpretation.

The word hermeneutics is, is the art and science of biblical interpretation. It's an art because it's done with a level of talent and skill. And it's a science because there's a methodology to doing it correctly. Now, some people are gifted at the one and not gifted at the other. They're gifted at interpreting. They have a natural gift. They open Scripture and seem to just understand it right. Then you go the other way. And there's people who are technically gifted and they can break down Greek verbs and all of that, but they're not actually getting the big point of the Scripture. They're missing the bigger picture things.

Hermeneutics done correctly means that what we do when we study the Bible is get to its correct original meaning.

And I'm going to do the thing that I always do, and it drives me crazy that I do it. Just so you know, if you're sick of hearing it, I am too. I'm going to give you the analogy from the redneck world of a butter knife. You know this analogy. But if you can come up with a better One for you. Use it. Find a better one. But for me, the best analogy is the butter knife, because almost everybody in this room has those. You open up your utensil drawer. It's the one, the flat one in the longest slot of your silverware holder, right? And you use that thing typically in the kitchen to spread butter. That's what it's designed for. Its designed purpose is to spread butter. That's why it was made, incidentally. That's why it's called a butter knife. It's to spread butter. Okay?

But the rednecks among us know that it has way more uses than spreading butter. Most of you, thankfully, didn't grow up like I did, where one of the main uses of it was to lock your door. Now, some of you don't understand that because you didn't have the door that needed to be locked from scary people, even in your family. But the way you would do that is the door trim around your door. You would jam it in the door trim so that the door itself couldn't open from the inside, Right? You jam it, of course, you're ruining your door trim. But it's locked, right? So I used to start my truck with a butter knife. And I don't mean in the key. Yeah, I heard somebody say it. You just showed your age. When the solenoid would go back that and the key wouldn't turn it. You have to reach under the hood with the butter knife, by the way, it shocks you when it happens. But sometimes you don't have something with an insulated handle. You got to use the butter knife and cross the positive and negative on your solenoid and start your truck or my truck. That's. Oh, you used to have to do that.

So butter knife has. I use it for a pry bar. I use the main use. Guess what the main second use for many people is? Screwdriver. Yes, I heard a lot of people say it. So that butter knife has a lot of uses. You can understand a butter knife in many different ways, but it has one intended, created purpose. Got it.

Bible interpretation is like that. Hermeneutics is the interpretation of the one meaning of any given text in scripture. And every text in scripture only has one meaning. The confusion comes in our culture is when we think all interpretations are valid or invalid. That's your interpretation. That's your interpretation. And we think that what that means is you can open the Bible and get any interpretation you want. That is true that humans can do that. But that isn't true that God intended that. God Intended one thing with every verse, he never speaks out of both sides of his mouth.

Now, there are some verses that have a fuller meaning, like you get in the Old Testament and you have Jesus passages, Messianic passages that have their fullest meaning later when Jesus comes on the scene, but they never have a separate, different meaning. Got it. So that I just taught you how to interpret the Bible, if you'll take it. So now with that, my intention in mind that hermeneutics, studying the Bible interpretation. There is only one interpretation of the Bible, but like the butter knife, there are many uses or applications. Right? When the Bible says that husbands love your wife as Christ loved the church, there are lots of ways to love your wife. Right? Not everybody has to buy flowers. Jamie and I don't buy each other Christmas presents and birthday presents and anniversary presents ever. Like we never do it. And you say, oh, that's terrible. Don't you love your wife? She doesn't need that, thank goodness. I don't need it either. That's not how we express our love to each other. Everybody's different, different uses. But I still have to love Jamie like Christ loves his church, what that means for her. So we're entering into Hebrews 11. It is not Hebrews 1. It is not like Philemon or one of the letters of John, a self contained text. It has a context, it has a purpose. It is a. Has a butter knife purpose. And let me say this, typically the use of Hebrews 11 in the Christian life is way, way, way more screwdriver, solenoid, starter. I don't know. Any of you men want to admit that you used to throw butter knives into the grass outside when you were a kid and try to stick them. Yeah. Any of you men want to admit that you sharpen them and try to stick them in trees and fences? Okay, only me then. Only me. So most people use Hebrews 11 not to spread butter, but to start their car or lock their door. They go in here and they say, let's talk about Gideon, talk about Moses. And I'm telling you the meaning of this text, the interpretation of the text, the proper handling of this text is about Jesus, not about the men or women listed. Now how do I know that if you think I'm making that up to try to jam what I think of the overall overarching principle of Hebrews into Hebrews? Watch this. Go to chapter 12, verse 1. What is the first word? All of your Bibles. Ah. Therefore. Right, Right. So whatever happens next in Hebrews 12 has to do with what just happened in Hebrews 11. And what does verse two start with of Hebrews chapter 12? What? What does it say? Say it out loud. Looking to Jesus. I'm not making this up. This isn't me coming up with some newfangled interpretation. This is me telling you the point of the hall of faith that we always talk about the hall of faith. We need to make sure we understand. If there is a hall of faith, Jesus is the main recipient. So please put it in your pocket whenever you open the Book of Hebrews. The main character of Hebrews is Jesus. God, who had former times spoke to us by the Prophets, has in these latter times spoken to us by his Son, Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. You can get caught off in so many other things. Do you lose your salvation in chapter six? Do you? What about the Sabbath in chapter four? And you get caught up in so many things that are not the main point. I don't want us to get the main point. Words change over time, but so do concepts. Where people use whole chapters of the Bible differently than they were intended to be used. Did you know the word art and artificial used to mean the same thing? Those are the same thing. The words art and artificial are the same meaning words as art, art. It's a created thing not found in nature. An organized created thing not found in nature. Something that's artificial is created and organized. That isn't found in nature. And so when we use artificial, we think of it as fake or bad. Like artificial intelligence. Right? It's fake or it's bad, but that's not its ultimate meaning. That's not where it came from. Or did you know the word silly just used to mean happy? It didn't have any negative connotation at all. So words change over time, but so do paragraphs, so do concepts. So do whole chapters of the Bible. People get this big idea that this is the whole meaning of a chapter of the Bible, like First Corinthians 13. And it's our job as Bible students to, instead of try to see every verse devotionally, like what it means to me. That's what we do. We're already forgetting butter and trying to get to how we can use the butter knife. And we're supposed to understand the purpose first, then decide its use. So that's what we're doing this morning. We're going to handle the Book of Hebrews hermeneutically. It is my goal, and I'm going to tell you my goal. I'm going to do something unusual today that I don't usually do. I already gave you some of Hebrews, chapter 12. But I'm going to start today's sermon once I get rolling here with the end of the chapter, not the beginning, so that we know where we're headed, so that we're all on the same page as we move forward in the Book of Hebrews. Everybody in this room is supposed to be thinking, this is about Jesus. This is about Jesus. This is about Jesus. The author of Hebrews wants to see Jesus. He wants us to make Jesus superior. He wants us to see Jesus as exalted. He wants us to make sure we don't replace Jesus with other things like Moses or Abraham or angels or these people listed. That's what you're going to do because you're a good student of the Bible, and I want to prep you for that by handling the last two verses first. So I'll pray and then we'll do that. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the Book of Hebrews. And even though I'm emphasizing what I am, I do thank you for the lives of the heroes of faith. Absolutely, Father. We do look to their example. We do want to dare to be a Daniel. We do want to be like David when he slew Goliath. We want to be strong. But ultimately, Father, all of the Old Testament was pointing to the New Testament. It was all pointing to Jesus. A new and better covenant, a new and better sacrifice, a new and better priest. So I just ask Father, that today, even though we are looking back for examples, what we're looking for is examples of people who looked forward. So please give us their example so that we look forward to and we worship Jesus in his name. Amen. All right, so I'm going to do it. I do this more in the Old Testament. I don't usually like doing it. If you didn't know if you're studying the Bible or you're preparing to teach the Bible, I prefer. You'll see commentators do it a lot where they'll separate verses and passages by theme, like common themes, and they'll separate, like, the first half of this verse and the second half of this verse, and they will preach by theme. I just don't like to do that because I like to let the text unfold in the way it was written, the way it was given to us. So I don't typically do what I'm doing right now by starting with verse 39, but I want to do it today so that the big thing I'm trying to do, which is get Us to see that the point of the book of Hebrews is to exalt Jesus and that he's superior and to not have any substitutes and not to exalt other things instead of him. As we go through that, I want you to look ahead to verse 39. Look at verse 39 with me. This is the point of what we're doing. And all these. These are the people that were just listed, right? I haven't listed them yet, but I'm going to in a moment. I'm going to list all the heroes of the faith. And he's saying all these who you just read about, that we just read about, have obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise. Okay, so go back to verse two. It says the elders obtained a good testimony because of their faith. Go to verse 39. And now it says the elders obtained a good testimony because their faith. And the most important thing I keep saying, I'm sorry to be repetitive, but I want to say it this morning, is did you notice it says that those people who were listed here that we're about to go through one by one, those people did not receive the promise. Does everybody got that? So for them, the benefit of their faith was future. Everybody in here understand that. So all the people listed aren't there for us to go back to the past and experience what they experience in their life as though their life is the important part of their experience. We're supposed to go back and see they lived that life for a future. That future is Jesus. Got it? So as we go through them, you're going to be thinking of Gideon, you're going to be thinking of Abraham, you're going to be thinking of Noah, and you're going to go, man, remember the Ark. Remember Gideon and the Fleece, and remember everything they went through. Remember the conquest of Canaan, Remember all that? That's amazing. We can be like that. That's what most people do with the Book of Hebrews. If you want to be like the people listed in Hebrews, hey, I got bad news for you. You don't get any promise yet, right? But that's not what we're supposed to be. The way we're supposed to be like them is look to the promise being fulfilled in Jesus. So their example isn't given to us for how to live a good life. We can do that with any. This is something we do as humans. We make everything so about us that it's like practically every person in the Bible is only important insofar as I can relate to them and what they mean. For me, that isn't why things are recorded. They're recorded so that we will do the thing that God commended them for doing. They obtained a good testimony by God because of their faith. And even though they hadn't received the promise and the proof of that. If you think I'm. If you think I'm exaggerating or saying it too wrong, look at verse 40. God having provided something, what's the next word in your Bible after something, you get something better than they get. Do you want to know why you get that, Hebrew believers? Because that's who this is too. Because Jesus came, they looked forward and didn't get the fulfillment and the blessing and the best because they could only see it in the future. They didn't get it in their lifetime. But not you, Hebrew believer. Now us sovereign gracers, we did get it because Jesus came, there's something better. And then it says that they should not be made perfect apart from us. That can be confusing. But the idea is this. There aren't two things that can make you perfect. Like they have a different thing that makes them perfect and we have a different thing that makes us perfect. The idea is they were made perfect by looking to the future promise. You were made purpose perfect by the same promise, but fulfilled in your time. So it's the same thing that makes both people perfect, complete. And that thing is Jesus. That person is Jesus. So they look forward to him. So that they didn't have a second perfecter, they only had. There's only one perfecter. He's going to be called the author and finisher of faith in the next chapter. There's only one. And they look forward to him. You look back to him. So you had the benefit of his actually having been here and coming. They trusted future tense. You're trusting present and past tense. Got it. So that's the idea. What's most important as those people that we are about to outline and admire and respect and these biographies that we get listed here in the book of Hebrews, as important as these people were, as amazing as their lives were, as amazing as they were as people and they are heroes, the thing that we are supposed to emulate in them does not have to do with our present life and the blessing of this time in this world, the last thing the book of Hebrews would want to do is make you secular and secular has to do with the here and now. And so what do we do? We enter the Book of Hebrews and go, how can Gideon and his life bless me here and now. How can Abraham and his life there bless me here and now? That's not what you're supposed to think. You're supposed to say Abraham looked forward. What did he look forward to? The promise. How can I look forward to the promise too? That's what you're supposed to do. To emulate the heroes of the faith is not to have a good life on earth, no matter what Joel Osteen says. To emulate the heroes of faith is to know that we have an eternal future. This Hebrews 11 came after the promises. Before it, the things listed like the holy of holies in heaven, being in the very presence of God. That's what they looked forward to. And I'm going to prove that as we unpack it. So with that you go back to chapter 11, verse 1 and 2. Now, faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. These people that we're about to list did not see in their lifetime the things, right? They hoped in the future. They were hoped for things. They did not see them with their eyes in their lifetime. All of the ones lifted listed. They didn't get to see Jesus. They didn't get to see the cross. They didn't get to see the resurrection. They won't get to see him sit on David's throne, right? They didn't get to see it in their lifetime, but they still believed for by it. The elders that we're about to list and learn from obtained a good testimony. They look forward. We look back. And then verse three. Now look again. I keep pounding this thing home because it sounds like I'm trying to make a case. And the reason it sounds like I'm trying to make a case, like I'm on the stand in court is because I'm trying to make a case. That's why it sounds like that. I'm trying to impress upon you that when you read Hebrews 11, I want you to see Jesus. I want you to see all those things, all those people did. They all had to look forward. They didn't even get the blessing in their lifetime of witnessing it. They didn't even get to. They had to look forward to the city that God was going to build, they their mansion in heaven as it were. From John 14 they had to look forward. But we get to read all of that and say as awesome as they were, we have the fulfillment. We got to see it. We witnessed it because Jesus came by faith. We they obtained a good testimony by faith. We understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. We, like them, are believing something even though we can't see it. Faith is the evidence of things that aren't seen. We did not see creation, but we believe that God formed creation by his word, don't we? None of us can go back and prove that. None of us can go to the moment God created, by the way. If we could, we wouldn't be there. You know that, right? If we hadn't been created yet. But even by with some sort of time machine, we can't look back in time and, or have some visual representation, some physical, Physical evidence that creation happened. So the author is saying, like the elders who obtained a good testimony by faith and looking forward because of the promises that God gave them, we are smart enough to look back and see. We can't with evidence go to creation and see it happen, but we believe it. There was a time when invisible things created whatever what is which is the invisible person being God. You can go into theology and ex nihalo and how creation was out of nothing, that there wasn't a helium molecule that exploded and made this universe like the evolutionists would say, but that there was a time when there was nothing visible and things that we can't see that God used to create himself, he created out of himself. So we can do that. He's saying right now we have the faith to look back now you're going to see this phrase by faith over and over again. We already defined faith last time, if you weren't here. Faith is a stuff, and it's a stuff that is merely and simply at its core, meaning trust nothing else. Not magic, not mysticism, not something you can conjure up to get more of, not some. It's belief, it's you. God said the thing and it's true because he said it. And faith is me saying, not only did he say it, but I'm counting on it. I'm putting my confidence in it. That's faith, pretty simple. If he says eating carne asada is good, I believe him. Now, it isn't for everybody, but if he said it, I would believe him. Okay, now we start with Abel. We're gonna go through the people who looked forward and we're gonna list them. And I'm not saying much about each of them. I'm just gonna talk through these verses. I'm sorry, because the sermon really is the main point, which is Jesus. So I'm not gonna Spend a ton of time on these guys and gals people listed. But we are gonna just kind of go through it and I'm gonna be making this bigger point hermeneutically over and over again. And this is the part where I said it might sound new or novel, because I'm gonna be pressing that idea into the text. I'm not going to be adding it to the text. It's there. I'm just going to emphasize it maybe a little more than we're typically used to when we go through the book. Okay. So you'll see what I mean when we get rolling. By faith, Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice. So what I'm doing is I'm thinking, I'm in the book of Hebrews. Has there been other talk of sacrifice in the book of Hebrews? Yep. Talked about the tabernacle, right. We talked about the blood over and over again. He's a better sacrifice. We've already talked about those things. So Abel sacrifice is important to God. Abel offered an excellent sack, more excellent sacrifice than king, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous God, testifying of his gifts through it, he being dead, still speaks. Now, why is that important? Because if you thought that the point of the book of Hebrews was what you do in your lifetime, and the lesson you're supposed to learn from these in the hall of faith is what you do in your lifetime, because you only have one lifetime, and. And it only counts what you do in life. And then you're dead. And that's the end. Wrong. It is. It's wrong. He lived by faith. He offered a more excellent sacrifice. And he's still now having an eternal effect on everything. His word, his sacrifice, still speaks. Now, it didn't only last in his time because he was looking forward to the Lord. And now he's still speaking. One of the first sermons I ever heard Pastor Heinrich preach, and he was talking about the blood of Abel, speaking from the ground. When he was talking about abortion, it made a huge impact on me and Jamie. Like, we drove home quiet that day. Like, did. Like, he condemns abortion because his blood still speaks from the ground. I'll never forget that. Well, this is something like that, that today Abel is preaching. So his message wasn't only for his lifetime. Enoch. Oh, by the way, all of these are in chronological order in Genesis. I'm not going to remember to give you the references. This is Genesis 4. Then there's one from Genesis 5 and Genesis 6. It's not every chapter, so I'm going to forget to give that to you. But you can just look their names up. Enoch. Okay, by faith, Enoch was taken away so that he did not see what. What are the wages of sin? And what does Jesus save us from? So all of these are saying their death wasn't the end. Their death wasn't final. Their death wasn't all there was. It wasn't just that little window of time they had on life and then their death, and then they don't count anymore. There were things beyond their death that were significant. Okay, by Enoch when he was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him. For before he was taken, he had this testimony. What? What was this testimony? That he pleased God. Not that he lived a good life, not that he lived his best life. Now, he pleased God, but without faith, it is impossible to please him. How did Enoch live by faith? He didn't have a good college degree and a good income and a good 401k. He lived by faith. That was what was important to him, is that he pleased God. And. And his faith said, I take God at his word and I believe him. And that pleased God. That's what we're learning from these people. But without faith, it's impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe. There's our word again. That he is. Now look at the next phrase. And that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him. What is the reward? The reward is being in the presence of Jesus Christ. That is the reward. Now, I don't mean it's payment for your good works. I mean the thing that people should want most by faith is to press toward the mark, the upward call of Christ, to be in his presence one day before his throne and bowing down at him and casting your crowns before his feet. Enoch got a reward. What was Enoch's reward? Well, in his case, he had a special reward because he didn't experience death. But he got another reward. And wasn't just not to experience death. It was that he was rewarded by God for his faith. And what was his reward? To be in the presence of the altar Almighty, to go into the holy of holy of holies, what the author of Hebrews is telling us, Better than the holy of the tabernacle, better than the holy of the temple, into the very presence of God himself. You only get that through Christ. He believed, and God rewarded him for his belief. And then Noah. Noah is a wonderful example by faith. Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen Moved with godly fear, 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. Has anybody talked to Noah lately? It's because he's dead that you didn't talk to him. Then how in the world can he be an heir? Heir is usually the people that live, not the people that die. He can only be an heir of God's promises and of righteousness. If he's still alive. And he is, he got his reward in heaven. Now he's in the presence of the Lord and he's being rewarded right now. It wasn't just in his lifetime for the faith in building the ark. And incidentally, if you were to talk to Noah right now, he would say, jesus is the ark. That's what he would say. Yeah, you can. It's a marvel what Noah did. It's a marvel. No one had ever seen a flood like that. The world had never been judged like that before. It was a new thing. But after it's all over and said and done, Noah and his family were eight people. How many people has the ark Jesus saved? So do you think Noah would say, look at me and my family? Or would Noah say, no, now I understand. Look at Jesus continuing on. Abraham and Sarah, they get the most space. Abraham and Sarah do. I can combine them here. Genesis 12 through 25. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out. What are the next words in most of your Bibles? What's faith again? He hadn't seen it, he didn't know it. Right. It was a promise that God made to him. And he believed. The promise started moving, not knowing where he was going. By faith, he dwelt in the land of. What promise? That's a future thing that you don't have yet. As in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs, there it is again with him of the same promise. For he waited for the city. Now this could. You could get stuck right here and think, well, the city is Israel. Once they get the land in the land of Canaan, and they are, the 12 tribes get separated later and all of that. That's what it means. No, look. Look carefully. He waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. What city is that? It's not Jerusalem. It's heaven. It's the permanent city. By faith, Sarah herself also receives strength to conceive seed. Huh? Seed. So here is lowercase in that lowercase is Isaac, but somewhere else the seed is capitalized in most translations, like in Galatians. The seed of woman. Which seed is that? Jesus. And she bore a child when she was past the age because she judged him faithful, who had promised a future thing. She was too old to have children and she believed God when he said. Now, of course, there was a hiccup in there where they didn't believe God and they tried to make things happen themselves. With Hagar, therefore, from one man and him as good as dead. Could it be more emphatic that this wasn't about Abraham being blessed in his lifetime? He was already almost dead. So Abraham didn't get kids and grandkids while he was young, like me. He was too old to have kids and grandkids and enjoy them. But there he is having his first son at 100, right? So he's as good as dead. So this wasn't about his best life now. It was about the promise to him for the future that would come through him. And the promise was that there were born as many as the stars of the sky and the multitude, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off. I can't keep repeating it, but I'm going to keep repeating it anyway. How many times and how many ways do I have to say it? That if you think that your life of faith, your Christian experience is about what happens to you now on earth and about the blessings you receive now as a Christian in your Christian life and don't have the perspective that you should be seeking a city whose builder and maker is God. That you should be seeking the eternal reward. That you should be seeking to be in the holiest place of all, in the presence of God. I'm trying to tell you, the author of Hebrews is practically screaming to us. Abraham was good, old and dead. He was never going to experience the blessing of family or seeing his kids go to college or anything else. The only thing he had was what happened after his death. And it wasn't a mere legacy like, at least my kids are going to do good. No, as we're all going to be together one day in glory. Because God made promises to us. These are eternal promises. He looked and seen them afar off. That's what it says they were. He was assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims. Where were they? Pilgrims, class. Where were they? Pilgrims on earth. Not in Ur of the Chaldees not in Egypt. They were pilgrims on this planet. This planet was not their home, even though there will be a new one later. That's for eschatology class. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. People who say what Abraham said, which is, this earth is not my home. I'm just a passing through. People who say that seek a permanent homeland, a place where they can live forever and ever in the presence of the Lord. Verse 15. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. They could have went back any time, right? Verse 16. But now they desire a better, that is a heavenly country. What's the lesson of Abraham? Get saved and go to heaven. That's the lesson of Abraham. Worship God in Christ. That's the lesson of Abraham. Because you can't do that if you're only focused on earthly. On your land in Canaan, on your land in Israel, on your land in Modesto, or whatever. If you're only focused on Earth. You're missing Abraham's point. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. If I go, I will prepare a place for you. Jesus said to his disciples, he's preparing a place in a city. The builder, the maker, is God. It's eternal. It's not temporary like the cities and places we build here. So I'm just challenging you. Get bitty. Get busy being ready for that city, not your city. Everybody always talks about leaving their city. Like, I can't wait to get old enough and get out of here. I love Modesto. I love it. I don't ever want to leave. And some of you don't know that I was born here. Some of you are not old enough to know that there was a Modesto city hospital that this old guy was born in. Scenic. Okay. And I don't want to leave Modesto. I always say, if God's gonna take me out of Modesto, I want him to take me someplace really far, like Mexico. Don't, don't. Don't take me to LA or something else close. Not if I can see Modesto. I love Modesto. You can hate it if you want, but I love it. This is my city. This is my town. I love it. I feel like a missionary in my city. So I'm saying all that to you. As much as I love my city, I love God's city way more. I'm looking way more forward to the City of God than I Am the city of Johnny. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten Son, of whom it is said in Isaac, your seed shall be called. Concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead. There we go again. From which he also received him in a figurative sense. Abraham even knew in his lifetime that the resurrection was bigger than death, that God could raise his son from the dead, Abraham's son. So Abraham understood even in his lifetime that there is a way that this thing called death does not have to be the end. There is a way that this thing I'm calling life is not all. There is this life with the number of years I've been given on earth, that there's more to it. There's a bigger picture. He didn't know how and he didn't know when. And when he got called. He didn't even know where. He didn't. He had never even been to the place yet. Like, go, I'm going to take you to a place. And Abraham started walking. Now, sometimes people think God is calling in them and they do a lot of that. They do a lot of stepping and saying, I will take a step and expect God to put something under my foot, okay? That's how much faith I have. I can take a step without even knowing where my foot's going to land. Well, sometimes you do that and you just fall off a cliff, okay? So don't think that you have a lot of faith when you haven't been given a clear directive by God and you take a step, okay? That's not faith. He had faith because God told him, get out of here, get out of here. God made a clear message to him what he expected, and he took God at his word. He believed him, he trusted him and he moved. And that's why he is commended here and so is Sarah. They're both commended here. He had a future promise and he believed it. And now we now know that in the seed that we're talking about, the ultimate seed is Jesus, that seed of Abraham, because he's in that family, then not. There's only one sentence or two sentences about the next patriarchs by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. This is one of the arguments, by the way, that when we say God hated Esau, that it wasn't really hate that Jacob, I mean, Isaac is honored for Esau here and the way he blessed them. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to argue with the text because it does say by faith he blessed them. But I will say that God hated Esau because the Bible says so. This verse doesn't undo what the Bible says elsewhere. Okay, so I don't have to try to make all the other places where God chose Jacob instead of Esau make sense in light of one sentence that isn't as clear as those are. That's another hermeneutic principle. But it does say Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. Not things in his lifetime, but things to come. I can't emphasize it more than Jacob in Genesis chapter 48. By faith. Jacob when he was. What was Jacob doing when he blessed Joseph's sons? What does the text tell us he was doing? Investing in his portfolio, trying to gain Instagram followers. What was Jacob doing when he was blessing his grandsons dying? Why would he do that? Because he knew there was a future. Because he knew there was more than just his life and death. He blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped leaning on the top of his staff. What did Jacob care about on his deathbed? Worship, promise, future. That's what he cared about. He didn't cling to this life. He didn't say this is all there is. Oh well, I did the best I could do Joseph by Faith. Joseph, verse 22, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel and gave instructions concerning his bones. This one couldn't be more clear. That Joseph knew that he was not going to raise from the dead in Egypt. Right? He had been risen to power in Egypt by the hand of God and providence. He rescued the people of Israel during the time of famine. All that those beautiful things happened. Now it was time for Joseph's life to end. And guess what? He doesn't say. No. My new city is Egypt. You know my no, no. That's not where I live. God is going to raise me from the dead again. And when he does, I want to be in the land of Israel. Bury me with my people. Bury me with my family. You would only do that if you have a future with your family. It wasn't just honor. So that you can go to the grave site and make make a lot of a big deal out of me. No, he knew he had a future, so his bones weren't going to stay in the ground. So take my bones where I want to raise with my people. And by the way, I don't think that is something that we need to apply to our lives. I'm talking about the patriarchal period and the promises directly to the people that were from the people tribe of, from the Hebrews, from the Hebrew people, from Abraham down. So he knew, he didn't want to. He, he didn't ever trust the Egyptian gods. He knew better and he knew his God would raise them. So he says, when I die, take my bones out of this place. Now Moses, he has a lot of content. So let's look at the life of Moses. What did Moses do that was so remarkable? This one is where it gets absolutely clearly, explicitly Christ centered so that you know that Pastor Johnny is not pulling it out of the air or he's trying to heal. He's trying to do what those people do who see Christ in every passage. That is not what I'm trying to do. That's bad hermeneutics to try to see Jesus in every passage. Jesus is not in every passage. I think that's poor hermeneutics. When people say they do Christ centered preaching, sometimes they are doing too much and making it Christomonistic. Preaching to where every verse has to have the Gospel, every verse has to have Jesus in it. That's not sound hermeneutics. So I'm not doing that. I'm not telling you that. Find Jesus in every person. Abel is like Jesus this way, Gideon is like Jesus this way. That's not what I'm doing. Trying to tell you they look forward to something. And that's something ultimately we found on the pages of Hebrews is Jesus. But here with Moses, he's mentioned Christ is mentioned. So look at it with me by faith. Moses when he was born, was hidden three months. That's funny. By the way, if you're looking for evidence that children can believe, here's a verse. I always talk about John the Baptist doing cartwheels in Elizabeth's tummy. Now you see Moses when he was still little. It says something about him having faith. Now it could mean his family. But there also could be the idea that Moses had faith when he was a baby. I think that might be possible. I don't know. I'm not, I'm not saying that dogmatically. He was hidden three months by his parents. There they are. See by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's command by faith. Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. I not going to go to verse 26. Yet most of us think of the Exodus story as Moses doing what the author of Hebrews just said. The story of him being rescued as a child, of being raised by his own family, the way that miraculously worked and they tricked Pharaoh's daughter and all of that. Right. And it is true that you should think about that. And the Exodus story is all about that. It is powerful and amazing. But the amazing part is, after all of that, what comes next? And it didn't say that he just simply stood as somebody against Egypt for the people of Israel. It says that in doing that, he aligned himself with somebody else. Verse 26. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward. I'll try to explain that in a moment. But for now, I want you to see I'm not making it up when I'm trying to see Jesus in this context and in the flow of thought. Verse 27. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured. Endured as seeing him who is invisible. Wait, what's faith again? Seeing things that are what not seen. Right. He. He didn't see God. He actually did. Moses got to see a vision of him in the burning bush. Right? But he here he's saying all the promises and everything that was promised. He wasn't moving based on something he had seen in his life. He was moving by faith in the invisible God. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood. Man, the author of Hebrews has talked a lot about blood. Right? The blood of bulls and goats can't save you, but the blood of Christ can. Lest he who destroyed the firstborn shall touch them. Then verse 29. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians attempting to do so, were drowned. The difference being Moses and the people had faith, Egyptians didn't. Right? Yeah, they had faith and they were rescued. The Egyptians didn't have faith and they were killed. Now why. Why do we pause just for a moment to say, did you notice Christ was mentioned? Now, I don't know about you. I've read the book of Exodus a few times in my Christian life, and I don't remember Jesus being mentioned. I don't remember at any point when Moses is talking to the people of Israel, that eventually a man named Jesus, some people will call him Emmanuel. His title will be the Christ, the Son of God will come. And I'm putting my faith in him right now. So how can it be said that Moses, if the Old Testament never told us he believed in Jesus, how can it be said that he suffered with Jesus? Well, the same can be true of Abraham. How can it be true that Abraham believed the gospel? Because it says that. That Abraham believed the gospel. Now, obviously, this is where I'm going to depart from my reformed brothers, who I love dearly. I don't think that's because it's the same covenant in both places. What I mean is this is a promise looking forward to the future. And Moses, like those before him, knew that there was a future and that when he knew there was a future. It either means one of two things. It either means he did have some clear understanding of the gospel that would happen in Jesus and the cross and all of that. He had some understanding and he believed that. Or it's saying that he, like the people that are being listed here, like all of the faithful, did the thing that God recognized and that connected him. But faith is the thing that God recognized and approved of that connected him with the people of Christ. Both are sound interpretations. It could be that he was given a vision of the cross. It could be that he is just doing what all people do who say, whatever you say, God, I'll do it. Look forward. But it says Christ. So I'm not making that up. That's what the text says. Whatever it means. It means that at least that somehow Moses is identifying with Christ by faith. However that is whatever the level of his understanding. The Bible says that about the prophets, doesn't it? That even the prophets, after they gave a prophecy, had to go study the prophecy to understand it, because they didn't fully understand it when they were given the prophecy. So I don't know what level the Old Testament saints had, what the prophets, Zechariah, when it says, they will look on me whom they pierced. Did he see a cross? Did he see Jesus? I don't know that. I don't understand that. I'm not even claiming to understand that when David was given the promise, my Lord said. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand. Did he see Jesus? Did he have a vision? Of course God could have done that. But let me tell you something about the butter knife and hermeneutics. Since the text doesn't say that, I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to say that Joseph is a type of Christian because the Bible doesn't say he's a type of Christ. I'm not going to say Moses saw a picture of Jesus. Because the Bible doesn't tell me Moses saw a picture of Jesus. I don't want to go farther than the Bible goes, but I am saying this says he suffered with Christ, whatever that means. That's a good way to pump the brakes on your interpretation. By the way, Joshua only gets one line. By faith. The walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. He didn't even get mentioned. Actually, Joshua's name isn't even mentioned. It just says the walls fell down. The power of God, not the power of the people. The power that the promise was going to be fulfilled in Jericho was not going to be the end of Israel. Right? Verse 31. By faith. Now, this one is astounding. In the story that in the hall of Faith of people who I am telling you, looked forward to the promise that would be fulfilled in Christ. However, they understood that. That ultimately Jesus, the main character, and they look forward. It is amazing that Rahab gets mentioned first because she's a harlot. How did a harlot, a sexual pervert, make it into the list of the hall of Faith? And the answer to that is, that's how we all get in there. By faith. All right? None of us should be on this list. Nobody should be on this list. Abraham shouldn't be on this list. Remember Hagar? That was not his wife. What do you call that when you sleep with somebody that's not your wife? It's in the top 10. Okay, so no human should be on a list of heroes when it comes to faith. It is only their reliance on God and their belief in His Word. And they're taking his promises at their face value and action based on those promises that make them valuable enough to make the hall of Faith. A harlot is in the hall of Faith. And if that were it, that would be amazing, right? We would all say, that is amazing. How amazing is grace? A harlot is in the hall of Faith. Well, it gets better. It's like an infomercial. Wait, there's more. Because she is in the lineage of Jesus, our Savior came from this harlot's family. You want to talk about grace? That's grace upon grace by faith. The harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe. If somebody were to quote, you don't need to because we're out of time, but John 3:16 right now. For God so loved the world. What? That he gave his only begotten son, that whoever what believe should not what? This is a Little John 3:16, right here in the book of Hebrews. By faith, the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace. If you don't think grace is amazing, you need to open your eyes. Grace is amazing. Don't ever get tired of grace. Now the next part is the part I really cherish. I love all the heroes of faith and it is valuable to study them in their own context. Absolutely valuable to learn lessons and to dare to be a Daniel. He didn't make the list, but you know what I mean. To dare to be an Abraham or dare to be a Moses. Right? It's absolutely valuable to do that. But they are listed here because of their future looking. They are listed here because by faith they knew this life wasn't all there was. By faith, in some sense they knew that the promises of God had an eternity, a salvation and a forever kingdom. They knew that by faith. That is why they're being commended by God here. That's why they obtained a good testimony, because they believed there's a future for us. And God, he's going to do something for us. Right? That's how they're being commended. Now let's do the summary version of the others. And what more shall I say, for time would fail me. I love the author of Hebrews like I could tell you all kinds of faith. Stories of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and also David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violent violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness, were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to fight the armies of the aliens. What did they all have in common? Faith. They trusted God. They believed God. Verse 35. Women received their dead, raised to life again. You can look at the widow of Zarephath and other passages in the Old Testament. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance. Look at the next line here. That they might obtain a better what? Resurrection. This is why they were willing to suffer. Because they knew it wasn't the end. They knew something was coming. Still others had trials of mockings and scourgings. Yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn into, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted and tormented. That doesn't sound like their best life now. That doesn't sound like name it and claim it. That doesn't Sound like the prosperity gospel, that the point of religion is for you to have a fulfilled, blessed life. No, these people did not. I don't know of anybody that would call being cut in half a blessing. And it goes on after the author of Hebrews with John being boiled and the martyrs and everything else for history. God's people who have trusted him by faith have been murdered and tortured. There's still. It's been happening right now on earth. It never stopped. Why would they do that? And how can we think that it's a blessing to go through that? Only we Americans have this problem. It is only the prosperous of the world that have the problem. Because we think that blessing is a Happy Life, about 90 something years and a family and grandkids and Christmas. That's what we think the blessing is. The blessing of God is for me to live a happy life and have a good retirement. And that's the blessing. Prosperity. Not for them. They had another blessing in mind that would not happen in their lifetime. They looked forward. And now the author of Hebrews is telling us. What did they look forward to? Verse 38. This is one of my favorite verses. I've actually said this of people in this room. This next verse, it's to me would be the highest compliment you could ever receive. The highest compliment you could ever receive is what is said next. Of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves on the earth. Isn't it interesting? They were on the earth, but the earth didn't deserve them. They were in the world, but they were not of the world.

You want to know what makes me really sad? Can the young people listen to me for a minute? You who are under the age of about, I don't know, 20, listen to me. I'm sorry that I know what 6, 7 is. I'm sorry I know that. But worse than that, I'm sorry you care what it is. What makes me the most sad is that you would grow up thinking that what this world has is good. It breaks my heart that you think that this world has something to offer you. Because the world will and does break every promise it makes to you. When you see people on TikTok dancing for attention and you think, look at their bravery. Look at them. Look at those people. They're not. They're fearless. No, they're very much afraid. They're just not afraid of God.

I could tell you stories, true stories. There was a time right here in Modesto and not far from here, my brother and I Were playing a gig because, you know, we were in a band, a successful band, and there were roughly 4,000 people at that show. And we weren't the headlining act. We were open for a headlining act, famous person, some of you might know. I'm not going to name them. Now. We played this gig and it was a little rough going, but by the end of that gig, the people were shouting, encore, encore. They did not want to hear the people they paid to see. They wanted to hear the Sloan brothers. That's what we were called. They wanted to hear the Sloan brothers. That's a very original name, isn't it? By the way, it was my dad's idea. We were trying to come up with a band name. And he goes, you guys are brothers. Just call yourself the Sloan Brothers, right?

So they were cheering and chanting, encore, Encore. More and more and more, right? So you might think that my ego was going through the roof. Look, this is what I. This is why I practiced all that time. This is why I learned to play guitar, so that I could get this. Not fake likes on Instagram, real people shouting and wanting to hear more from me. They did in fact, ask for my autograph after that. Not one of you have asked for my autograph. I mean, except for you, the people who need the reimbursement envelope thing filled out.

Now, let me tell you a crazy story. How God does what he does. I was a Christian. At this time, I do need you to know I was not falling for any of it. I was playing music because I wanted to be a professional musician, not because I wanted the approbation of people. Music saved my life and I wanted to do it for a living the next day. That was at night. On one night, three to 4,000 people shouting, thinking we were great, asking for autographs, by the way, that night was great because they carried our equipment to our truck for us. It was great the next day. I'm not going to tell you what I had to clean up, but my fellow janitors in the room know what I had to clean up on. Monday morning, there was a soccer tournament at mjc. And let me just say, sometimes people use things other than toilets. And it was awful. Awful. It took me four hours to do that job.

So however high I might have been that the world was promising me one night, the Lord gave and took away. So please hear me, please hear me, especially you young people. The world right now is screaming for your attention. It's telling you you're missing out. You're missing out if you don't have this many followers if you're not getting this many eyes, if your lip fillers aren't just right, if you don't have the right tools, the right toys, the right makeup, it's telling you, come. Come with us. This is where all the good stuff is, out here in the world.

And I'm telling you right now, those of you who have faith, those of you who say, I do not need the promises of the world, I will trust the promises of God. Jesus is better than anything the world has to offer me. I will forsake anything in this world to serve Jesus Christ. Those of you who have done that, those beautiful girls that are like my own family that were singing this morning, the world doesn't deserve you. Stop trying to earn its favor. Stop trying to impress this stupid world that hates God. Look to the Lord and imagine him saying, you're my kind of person. I love you. You did what Moses did, you did what Abraham did, you did what Rahab did. You trusted me instead of all of that. Do you understand?

The preacher that's talking to you right now is telling you, I'm telling you, give up any promise or fun or good that this world has to offer. I'm literally telling you to sacrifice yourself for Jesus Christ. Do you understand the burden that that comes with from me? I'm telling you, a retirement account doesn't count. An education doesn't count. None of those things count unless God gets glory from it. It's a scary thing for me to tell you that because I'm literally expecting you to take God at his word and go give your whole life to him and miss out on all of it. But that is exactly what I'm doing.

Because the author of Hebrews is doing that for us. He's doing it for the Hebrew believers.

As much as you love these men, as much as you love Gideon, as much as you. Whatever you see David doing and killing his thousands, whatever you see Moses doing, imparting the Red Sea, all of those people right now would tell you, look to Jesus. Abraham would tell you, don't look at me and my son and my grandson. Look at my great, great, great grandson Jesus. Noah would tell you, don't look at me and my ark. Look at the ark who saves souls. I only saved eight. He saves billions. That's what they would tell you. And the author of Hebrews is practically screaming it to us. Forsake everything for Jesus.

You want to know why that's a fair thing for God to ask? Because he forsook everything for You. He left his glory. He came down here and was abused. All the things that those people just listed, they were only acting like their future Savior and let their lives be torn apart. He let himself be killed. We can make anything about us. This text is not about us. This text is about Jesus and I want you to follow him.

And then now look at those last verses that I started with and we'll close. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise. God having provided something better for us. We got the first part of the promise in Jesus, didn't we? In his life, they didn't get to see that, but we did get to see it. For them, it was unseen for the people of the Book of Hebrews, it was seen for us. It's unseen because it's in the past. But like the creation of the world where we can look in the past and trust God at His word, we can look to the past and see that Jesus really did come. He really did die. He really did raise. Jesus is the main character of the Book of Hebrews. And please don't forget it.

Now, I guess the real question is, is he the main character of your life? Or are you? Are you the main character of your life? I was just telling somebody this week about my early understandings of YouTube. And I said it, and I'd never said it out loud before, but I thought it a billion times. It's right in the title, isn't it? Y O U tube, not God tube. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the author of Hebrews, whoever he might be, as he includes this story in his letter. I think it's safe to say, and we all see this morning, or at least I hope we do, that he's doing it so that we would focus on the big picture. And that is Jesus, that he's a sufficient savior. He's a great high priest, He's a great king. He is the best example of faith and faithfulness. And Father, we thank you for what we have in him and our salvation being redeemed by the best sacrifice, that we're a part of the best covenant. And Father, I would ask that we would live our lives not for what we could get here, but to store up treasure in heaven, that we would do what they did and look for the city that you built. And we'll thank you and praise you forever for it. In Jesus name, Amen.