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Hebrews 11:1-4
"Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. For by it the elders
obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of
God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do
appear. By faith Abel offered unto
God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he
was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh."
"Hebrews
chapter 11, this chapter on faith. The author has been building through the first ten chapters, the reason
why we should believe, and the danger of unbelief, and warning about different
circumstances that might cause unbelief and why. Because Christ is better as a redeemer, better than angels,
better than Moses, better than Joshua, better than sacrifice, better than
priests, better Temple and so forth, you know, why they should believe, and be
fearful of unbelief. Lest any promise
being left, that something they never partake of, never enter into God's
rest. In the end of chapter 10,
the last two verses, we hear "Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no
pleasure in him. But we are not of
them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of
the soul." (verses 38-39 of Hebrews 10) Now in chapter
12, verse 1, as he
kind of wraps up this whole exhortation (in Hebrews 11), he says, "Wherefore
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the
race that is set before us," the exhortation, 'seeing that we are surrounded with so great a cloud of
witnesses.' Now, he'll take us through those
witnesses in chapter 11, that's what he does. Ah, verse 39 and 40 of chapter 11 say, "And these all, having obtained a
good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they
without us should not be made perfect." Literally 'a
good witness through faith, wherefore seeing we are surrounded by this great
cloud of witnesses,' Because some people think, 'What
that means is, you know, Aunt Jane and Uncle Harry, and my relatives that have
gone before us, and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they're standing around watching
us. And seeing that everybody's
eyeballing us from glory, ah, we should do our best.' I just lost my dad, I don't believe my dad's standing
around watching me. I mean, my dad
loved me. But I imagine what's in
front of his eyes right now, and what he's looking at, I know he'd say 'No
offense, but you don't mind if I don't look back in that direction?' Like, people that are in heaven and they have the glory of
Jesus Christ before their eyes, and all of the glory and the wonder of heaven,
all that they have longed for, all that they're finally realizing, like they
want to stand around and watch us mess up here, you know, and getting through
our pilgrimage. I don't think
so. [Calvary Chapels believe a
somewhat strange scenario of 'your soul, or the spirit-in-man component of
you stays conscious upon death, and goes to heaven upon death, and then comes
back at the time of the 1st resurrection to immortality to be mated
again with the new glorified body promised by God through Paul in 1st Corinthians 15:49-56 and 1st Thessalonians 4:13-17.' They do this because they believe the spirit-in-man, the human spirit
that gives us intellect and the knowledge of the physical around us (cf. 1st Corinthians 2:9-13) stays conscious upon death, after the physical body
containing it dies. They disregard
Solomon in Ecclesiastes saying that the spirit-in-man goes unconscious upon
death, even though Solomon also agrees and says these human spirit's do go to
heaven, or upward, as well. They
use the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, which some feel is strictly an
allegory, a parable, to prove the spirit-in-man, the human spirit remains
conscious upon death. The
important thing is we will all find out when we die. Won't we? If
the human spirit goes unconscious upon death, the next conscious moment that
person will be aware of, like the passage of a nano-second, will be that
they're rising up in the 1st resurrection to immortality to meet the
Lord in the air. So either way, we
make out just fine. As Pastor Joe
says, we should study the Word of God as the Bereans did, and form our own
theology, as differing parts of the Body of Christ have in these secondary
areas of Biblical interpretation. An interesting study showing how the spirit-in-man goes unconscious upon
death and just what the spirit-in-man is can be found at: http://www.unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm. These prophetic beliefs are secondary to the Gospel of Salvation, and
you are free to believe what you yourself prove to be Scripturally true.] Seeing we're surrounded by such a great
cloud of witnesses, what is he talking about? He's talking about Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham
and Sarah, and Moses, and those that he outlines here in Hebrews 11, that they
lived by faith. Because they lived
by faith God honoured them.
What Is
Faith?---Faith Is The Foundation Of Things We're Hoping For
So
as we go into this 11th chapter we start to meet this cloud of
witnesses. He begins by saying, "Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. For by it the elders
obtained a good report." (verses 1-2) "a good report" or a "good witness," that's our point all the way through
this. Faith operates, he says, in
relation to two things, in relation to the future, and in relation to the
invisible. He says "faith is
the substance" hupostasis, that which stands under, the foundation of things hoped for," Substance, even in our English is "sub," "submarine" to be underneath,
"sub-stance", faith is what stands underneath, it's the foundation of our hope
of things hoped for. It's related
to the future. We're hoping,
believing, that Christ is coming, that he's going to descend with a shout, the
voice of the archangel and the trump[pet] of God, and in the twinkling of an
eye we're going to be changed, we're going to be caught up (see http://www.unityinchrist.com/corinthians/cor15-16.htm), that the earth is going to be
cleansed by the Lord and his power, and his Kingdom is going to be established
(see http://www.unityinchrist.com/kingdomofgod/mkg1.htm), that there's an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away. Just think of what we believe. Try to tell that to your unsaved friends. 'Hey, you know things are terrible
in this world, I see everything that's going on around us now, I hear they're
talking on the radio and TV, there's six American cities that are going to be
leveled by suitcase-sized nukes, they got these suitcase sized nukes, and
they're going to level six American cities, and millions of people are going to
die.' [this sermon was given shortly after
9/11, the Trade Towers attack.] You
know what? If that's going to
happen, first of all, Abraham said, 'Surely, the God of all the earth
will do what's just.' He doesn't destroy the righteous along
with the wicked. 'Lord, if
there's ten righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, will you spare the
city?' 'If there's ten righteous
there I'll spare it.' If six American cities are going to
disappear because of nuclear weapons, and millions of Americans are going to
die, I have news for you, Damascus is going to disappear, Tehran is going to
disappear, North Korea is going to disappear, it's not going to stop, we have
nuclear subs. We're talking about
the destruction of hundreds of millions of people. [Actually, when you combine all Old Testament and New
Testament prophecies about the Tribulation, World War III, 9/10ths of all
humanity will end up dying before it's all over, leaving just 700,000,000 out of
the 7 billion on earth today. That
also agrees with most military analysts and what they predict. See the section on prophecy at http://www.unityinchrist.com/Prophets_Prophecy.html] And if that is going to happen, the Rapture's got to happen first, the
Rapture has got to happen first. 'You
must be nuts.' 'What do you mean
nuts, you don't believe that the Lord's going to descend with a shout, and
there's going to be the voice of the archangel Michael, and there's going to be
a Trumpet, and then we're going to shoot up off the face of the earth? You don't believe that? You must be nuts.' [and your unsaved friends will then look at you like you've got three
heads.] Why don't they apprehend
that? Because faith, faith is the
foundation, it's the sub-stance it's the hupostasis it's
the foundation of the things we're hoping for, faith is. And unbelievers, and rightly so, when
you go to witness to your friends, don't start with the Rapture. [laughter] When you go to witness to your friends, start with the love
of Jesus and his death upon the cross, and what he's accomplished, and when
they get saved, we're going to take our time to get them through all this other
stuff. Because, yea, to an
unbeliever, that is crazy. But for
you and I, it's faith. It's what's
standing under, it's the foundation of our hope, the blessed hope of the
Church. "it's the evidence of
things not seen." That word "evidence" means "the conviction." So it isn't just the foundational things that are objective
that we've taken hold of, that word "evidence" speaks of a subjective
experience, it means 'our heart dwells with the conviction in regards to
things that are unseen, the invisible.' [Oxford American Dictionary, "Subjective: existing in a person's mind
and not produced by things outside of it, not objective."] We believe in the invisible. We believe in heaven, we believe that
there are angels, we believe in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who can come
to our rescue (cf. Psalm 18). We believe that
there is another realm that is more real than this realm, and that this
[physical] realm is passing away (cf. Revelation 21:1), that heaven will abide
forever. Hey look, because people
want to take faith and apply it to all kinds of things, Mercedes, bank
accounts, mansions. Faith is
relative in its function to the future and the invisible. That's what this says in verse 1
here. 'Faith is the
substance of things hoped for,' that's the future, 'and it is the conviction in regards to things not
seen, that's the invisible.' [Comment: Isaac before Sarah got pregnant wasn't seen, and he was yet
in the future. God used this
thing, person hoped for, and conviction of something, someone not yet seen, to
develop Abraham's faith, so it can also apply to a person, hoped for, but not
yet seen. It also applied to
Abraham's faith for the heavenly city whose builder and maker is God, the New
Jerusalem, part of our inheritance. But can you see how God used physical things hoped for to help Abraham
develop Godly faith? This is not
wrong, and God uses things we desire and pray for like this all the time.] That's again, hard for us to explain to
our unsaved friends. And we have a
testimony in our heart because they say, 'How do you know?' And you say 'I know that I know.' 'What do you mean, you know that you know?' 'I know that I know that I know. I don't know how that I know, but I
know that I know.' It's the conviction of things not seen, 'Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God
has prepared for those who love him, but by his Spirit he's made those things
real to us, by conviction.' 'Though the outward man is perishing, the inward man is renewed day by
day, while we look, not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are
not seen.' How do we look at things that are not
seen? Things that are seen are
temporary, the things that are not seen are eternal, by faith. It says of Christ in 1st Peter chapter 1, verse 8, 'Whom we love, having not seen, whom we love, with joy unspeakable, full
of glory,' we love
Christ, we've never laid eyes on him. Are you afraid of Godzilla? If somebody told you Godzilla was coming into town, would you be afraid? No, because you don't believe in
Godzilla. Maybe if you're four-years-old
and your parents are dumb enough to tell you he's real, and taking you to a
Godzilla movie and you're going to have nightmares. I'm not afraid of Godzilla or King Kong, I have a healthy
fear of God, because I know he's real. I've never seen him, I've seen
Godzilla. I know he's real [God
that is]. The second I was saved,
it says 'For God so loved the world that whosoever believes on him should
not perish but have everlasting life.' That's not
when we get to heaven, the second we get saved, everlasting life is implanted within us. 'I am the resurrection and the
life, he who believeth in me shall never die, and he that liveth and believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live,' you know, the point is, it's in
us. Hard to explain, because it's
the sub-stance of the things we're hoping for, the foundation of our hope. It is the conviction that's upon our
hearts of things we have not yet seen. That's hard to explain to an unbeliever. It says in verse 2, "For by it the elders obtained a good
report." Or a good witness. "For" "by it" is locative, it means 'in the
sphere of it, faith,' 'it
is in the sphere of faith that the elders obtained' and that's passive, it doesn't mean
they got it themselves, it means 'it was in the sphere of faith that the
elders were well reported of,' not that they got it themselves, it was the things they did in faith that
remain on the page in Hebrews chapter 11 that tell us they're well reported of. We don't hear about Abraham's failures here. We don't hear about Noah's failures here. We don't hear about Moses' failures
here. We hear the good report, the
good witness. It is in the realm,
it says here, 'in the sphere of,' locative, 'in the sphere of faith, in the sphere of it, they have been
well-reported of, the elders, in regards to the things they did in faith.' Not of their effort, but they have been well-reported of, passive, that
that's happened.
"Through Faith We
Perceive That The Worlds Were Framed By The Word Of God, So That The Things Which
Are Seen Were Not Made Of Things Which Do Appear"---And Modern Physics Has Just
Proven This!
Now,
it says this, by faith, or "Through faith we understand that the worlds were
framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things
which do appear." (verse 3) [Wow! Science, through Albert Einstein and the BIG BANG has just
caught up with this Bible truth, through modern physics.] Because we believe in that which is
invisible, that which is not seen. Every generation that's ever lived, by the way, since Adam and Eve, has
lived and died, not receiving the fulfillment of the promises. They've lived in faith. Verse 39 tells us that, about those
that lived in faith. Not just
faith in faith. Faith again is
only as solid as, it's not an object, it's faith in Jesus Christ [or that he
will do something, as with Abraham and Sarah having Isaac]. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1 begins to
tell us 'in many ways, and sundry times has God spoken through the
prophets, but has now spoken in these last days in Son, through his Son,' our faith is in him and what he
said. We believe in him. Paul said 'I know in whom I have
believed.' And it is by that faith, it says, 'We
understand, we perceive that the worlds were made by the Word of God [i.e. Jesus
Christ], that the things which are seen are not made of things which do
appear.' It's kind of an interesting thing. By faith we understand. Now 'It's by faith we perceive.' "To understand"
that is a word, never in the New Testament anywhere is it translated in the
sense of physical sight, "through faith we understand" we don't see that way. It's 'by faith we perceive,
we perceive something.' If you get past the first two verses of
the Bible, the rest of it's a breeze, "In the beginning God created [Hebrew "bara": to create something out of nothing] the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and
void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters." 'The things that are made are created
from things which do not appear, which are not seen,' the Bible tells us that. [And so does science now, through the
BIG BANG. Order and watch The
Genesis Code, about
how the science of Relativity no longer disagrees with Genesis 1:1-31.] And that's something we perceive, it's
something that we perceive, and the things that are made right now around us
are made of things which do not appear. [i.e. What made the swirling mass of plasma 11 to 13 trillion degrees
hot with a frequency of 3 trillion cycles per second which was the size of a
mustard seed, which was the initial phase of the BIG BANG? Scientist don't know, it appears to
have come out of nothing. They
can't go back beyond that initial appearance of this tiny spec of intensely hot
and dense plasma they call the BIG BANG.] Isn't that interesting? That's why, when I think of resurrection again, the wonderful thing
about resurrection, when I'm thinking about the resurrection, because my dad's
gone, I don't just believe in life after death, like oooh, some ethereal plane,
I believe in resurrection. I
believe he's getting up again. And
I believe I want to put my arms around him, and I'm going to hug him
again. That's what I believe.
Because, I was there the second he took his last breath, I saw the software
leave the hardware. The software,
the program, is immaterial, it's mass-less, it doesn't weigh anything. [He's talking about the human spirit, the
spirit-in-man that Paul talked about in 1st Corinthians 2:9-13. For an explanation and good studies
about all this, the first
resurrection to immortality, and the 2nd resurrection for all the
unsaved dead, see, http://www.unityinchrist.com/corinthians/cor15-16.htm, and again, for what might happen at the 2nd resurrection for all the unsaved dead (including my dad, whom I love dearly)
see http://www.unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm. The second link goes to articles that explain about this human software
that gives us our human intellect, and awesome human reasoning power, far
beyond that of animals.] If you
take all of your software and download it on a computer, you've got a new
computer or something, it might be faster, you get an upgrade, you see that's
what's going to happen when we get to resurrection, we're going to get an
upgrade [both in hardware and software], everything's going to work faster, but
it's going to be the same software that's in there [all our memories, all the
character we developed under the influence of having God's indwelling Holy
Spirit coupled to our software, the human spirit in us, all of that will be
placed in this new upgraded hardware, our new resurrection bodies, whatever
they'll be like. We know this,
because John tells us in 1st John 3:2, "Beloved, now are we the
sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear,
we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." How is Jesus now? Later in
John's life, on the Isle of Patmos, John saw Jesus as he is now, in Revelation
1:11-18. John says in 1st John 3:2 that our new bodies will be like what he saw in Revelation
1:11-18. Look it up and read
it.] And it's the software that
makes the program, which is intangible. Resurrection is no problem, he was cremated, some people go 'oh, he
was cremated, what's going to happen in the resurrection, there is nothing
left?' Well, after three years laying
somewhere in a box there's nothing left either. And lots of early Christians were burned at the stake or fed
to lions, there wasn't much left of them either. Lots of them have been buried at sea. You know, the thing we've come to
understand is that atoms are fungible, it's the software that determines who I
am, and God has a higher purpose for this space-suit that's wearing out right
now. But what will make it what it
is, is the program that he put in it, it's the software, it's the
information. I can be recreated
from any atoms, anywhere, because it's the atoms that form the molecules, and
the molecules make the proteins and everything else, he can use any old atoms
anywhere to reconstruct the same hardware. It doesn't matter, atoms are interchangeable. And we're discovering more and more the
structure of things and the importance of the software of all this, and the
material universe is really made of things that are not seen [i.e. physicist
are now always talking about "dark matter" and "dark energy." And don't forget, God is, dwells,
outside of Space & Time, the Space-Time Continuum.] That's what it just said here. God spoke, he raimo, not Logos, he spoke the worlds into
existence. That things were formed
and made by things which are not seen. The Programmer programmed, it was the software that determined how
everything amassed and come together.
Some History Of
Quantum Physics And Relativity
Again,
understanding a little bit more in these centuries about these things, they say
if you would take the nucleus of an atom and make it the size of a basketball,
that the closest electron would be in Los Angelos (and he's in Philadelphia),
it would be 3,000 miles away, that everything is mostly space. If you took all of the space out of the
earth, 8,000 miles in diameter, if you took all of the space out of it, you
could put the earth in a basket. So everything here is mostly space. Some of us more than others, but [laughter]. And everything that's made is really
made of something that doesn't appear. I had some fun today looking at some history of some quantum particle
physics in this century, you know it was in 1904, 1906 when scientists started
to look at subatomic structure [Einstein, Niels Borr]. You had molecules, and then you got
down to atomic structure, with nucleuses, neutrons, protons and electrons, and
electrons got the photons, and they started to find all of this stuff. And they were staggered, Ludwig
Boltzmann, a leading quantum physicist when the field was blossoming, committed
suicide, because he couldn't handle what he was discovering. Because what he said was the material
is really made of non-material [shimmering balls of pure energy as some would
later say, which is the way the matter started out in the BIG BANG, and then it
cooled and expanded to what we have now, and that knowledge is now all
contained in provable modern physics. Poor Boltzmann, he couldn't handle all that]. And if what he was discovering is true, he said "There
has to be a Designer," and
he couldn't handle it. In 1906
J.J. Thompson received the Nobel Prize for proving that electrons are
particles. In 1937 his son was
awarded the Nobel Prize for proving that electrons are waves [they're both,
just like photons which make up light]. The father got the Nobel Prize for proving that electrons were
particles, the son gets the Nobel Prize for proving electrons are waves, now
they discover both father and son are correct. And what makes it even more astonishing is that there is
compelling evidence that the only time Quanta ever manifest as particles is
when someone's looking at them. [Order the book Schršdinger's Kittens if you want your mind to be
blown.] This is for your
information. Niels Borr pointed
out that if sub-atomic particles only come into existence in the presence of an
observer, then it is meaningless to speak of a particle's properties and
characteristics as existing before they're observed [no wonder poor Boltzmann
committed suicide]. Follow me here
[I can't stop laughing]. But if
the act of observation actually helped create the properties, what did that
imply about future science? And he
said, "Anyone who isn't shocked by quantum physics hasn't understood
it." One physicist who was deeply troubled
[only one?] by Borr's assertion was Albert Einstein [my hero of all
physicists]. Despite the role that
Einstein played in the founding of quantum theory, he was not pleased with the
course of the fledgling science [naturally, because quantum physics does not
mesh mathematically with the science of Relativity, which Albert Einstein was
the major discoverer of. Before
Einstein died, his goal was to integrate quantum physics with Relativity, which
scientists continue to try to do, and this is to try to produce what they term as
The Unified Field Theory. Get and
read Greene's The Elegant Universe]. The problem according to Einstein's
Special Theory of Relativity is that nothing can travel faster than the speed
of light. Einstein and his
colleagues were convinced that no reasonable definition of reality would permit
a faster thing than light. And to
see what they discovered in quantum physics is if they took an electron or a
photon, and they split it off, and it shot off in one direction, that something
just like it shot in the other direction. If they deflected it off of a plate, where it deflected, the thing that
went in the other direction deflected in the same place even though there
wasn't a plate [is your mind blown yet?]. So they discovered that there's some communication between them that
they don't understand. And if one
of them is traveling at the speed of light in this direction, the other one is
traveling the speed of light in that direction, something's happening at twice
the speed of light [Warp 2 in Star Trek terms, for all you Trekkers like
me]. And Einstein didn't want to
face that, he couldn't hack it [eventually he did], because he knew it pointed
to a Creator, and he didn't want to deal with it. [Einstein came to accept that God really existed, though he
never darkened the door of a church or synagogue, as I believe he despised
organized religion, and rightly so. When my dad was at Williams College he said if you were a math student,
you could call up Professor Einstein on the phone at Princeton University, and
get help solving math problems. He
was a very humble man.] It says,
though, Borr remained unperturbed by Einstein's argument [they were both
right]. One factor that
contributed to Borr's following was that quantum physics had proved so
secularly successful, they could do these things, they just couldn't explain
them. "In predicting phenomena
few physicists were even willing to consider the possibility that it might be
faulty in some way. The entire
industry today of lasers, micro-electronics, computers have emerged on the
reliability of the predictions of quantum physics. The popular Cal Tech physicist Richard Frayman summed it all
up by saying, "I think it is safe to say that no one understands quantum
mechanics. In fact, it is often
stated, that of all the theories proposed in this century, the silliest is
quantum theory. Some say that the
only thing that quantum theory has going for it, in fact, is that it is
unquestionably correct. There
seems to be evidence to suggest that our world and everything in it are only
ghostly images, projections from some level of reality beyond our own, that the
real reality is literally beyond both Space and Time [that guy is knocking on
God's door, outside the Space-Time Continuum!]." The main architect of this astonishing idea includes one of
the world's most eminent thinkers, the University of London physicist David
Boam, as prestigious as Einstein and one of the world's most respected quantum
physicists. Boam's work in plasma
physics in the 1950s is considered a landmark in science. One of Boam's most startling
suggestions is that the tangible reality of our everyday lives is really a kind
of illusion, it's like a holographic image. Underlying it is a deeper order of existence, a vast and
more primary level of reality that gives birth to all the objects and
appearances of our physical world, in much the same way that a piece of
holographic film gives birth to a hologram. [This concept was used in "Star Trek, The Next Generation,"
with the Enterprise's Holo-Deck. What modern quantum physics is saying is we're all living on a huge
holo-deck, outside of which, is a higher reality, plain of existence. Remember those 'humans' created on the
holo-deck were powerless to leave the holo-deck and step out into the
Enterprise proper, the higher reality?] The holographic paradigm is a still developing concept, and riddled with
controversy. For decades science has chosen to ignore the evidences that do not
fit the standard theories. However
the volume of evidence has now reached the point that denial is no longer an
option." "The Bible, of course,"
one scientist says, "is unique in that it always presented the universe in more
than three dimensions, and revealed a Creator that is transcendent over his
creation. It is the only book that
demonstrates these contemporary insights." [he
laughs] "Paul Davies, famous
quantum physicist, is reported as summarizing this provocatively, he said, "It
is as if the entire universe was nothing more than a thought in the mind of
God." "By faith we perceive
that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are
seen were not made of things which do appear." (verse 3) Whose crazy now, huh? [laughter] And you know, the truth is, look, this looks like a metal
podium. The truth is, it's all space, it's an electric field, that's what
quantum physicists can't stand. This is not a solid microphone stand, it's made of atomic structure, but
all space, there's nothing there, and what they realize is, is that two realities
can exist within the same space, and for one reality to exist, Someone had to
design it, and put it in order. And here we are, ahuh. I'm
glad we can take all this in by faith, and I don't have to do this with a paper
or a pencil or a computer, I'll tell you that. 'By faith, we perceive these things, that the world we
live in right now is an illusion, it's like a vapour, it's passing away,' that's what we're told (cf. James
1:10-11), and that the reality behind these things is the Word of God (another
name for Jesus Christ, cf. John 1:1-14). Moses made the tabernacle in regards to the reality of what he'd seen in
heaven, it was a copy, it was a reflection of what the greater reality
was. Man, created in God's image
and likeness, what was it like when Adam, before the fall, walked with God? It was in more than one dimension if he
walked with God [not necessarily, God in the person of the pre-Incarnate
Christ, could have and did step into man's dimension on earth, several possible
theological positions are possible here, and we just do not know which is
true]. It was the fall that bound
us to our existence now. And it
says the creation is groaning and travailing, waiting to be released from the
bondage that it's in (cf. Romans 8:19-22). What will that be like? What will that be like? I can't imagine. When you get to heaven [which according to all these physics lessons
we've just had, when we are able to step outside of Space-Time and into God's
realm, which is the ultimate reality, like us being able to step off the
holo-deck we all exist on, where the holographic images we once were become a
"solid" reality, stepping into Eternity], we're all going to be 30-something,
29, whatever, wherever you were your best, I guess, see my dad young, my
grandpa young again. I'm looking
forward to seeing Jesus Christ, that will be my joy of joys. I'm looking forward to getting ahold of
my dad's ear again, same ear, upgraded, and rubbing it with my fingers, by
faith, by faith. Maybe you're here
tonight and you don't believe, you think we're insane, and you think everybody
here is more insane because they listen to me, and you know I'm insane. You know, we're not giving out Cool-Aid
at the doors or something. Look,
Paul puts it this way, 'What if what we believe is not real? What if Christ isn't risen from the
dead, what if there isn't another realm? What if that's the reality, and we live our lives with hope, and joy,
and we're able to face death, and we're able to face difficulty, because of
faith, and we live our whole lives with hope and with joy, and if none of it's
real and we live that way, and we die, what have we lost? But if it's true, and you don't
believe, what have you lost?' (possibly referring to 1st Corinthians 15:12-23) If that tomb in Jerusalem is empty, if on the 3rd day he did
rise from the dead, if in that new upgrade, same body, but upgraded, spirit
driven [now Calvary Chapel's believe this is Christ's new body, and we'll have
the same, "flesh and bone" theology. Other's believe spirit is more solid than matter (outside this realm of
Space-Time the holo-deck we live on), and our new bodies, like Christ's will be
composed of pure spirit. Again,
two differing theological positions, one of which will prove true, and we'll
find out at the time of the 1st resurrection to immortality],
software driven instead of blood-driven, all his blood was drained out. Stepping through walls, coming into the
midst of the disciples, the new body, the new model, I can't wait. Traveling at the speed of light? No, Einstein only had half the speed, the
quantum physicists have proved there are things going twice as fast. I don't want to travel at the speed of
light, I want to travel at the speed of thought, much faster than the speed of
light [Pastor Joe's biggest pet peeve is getting stuck in traffic, or behind
someone going barely under the speed-limit]. And I've figured out that's why I'm frustrated in traffic
now, because I was designed to travel [loud laughter] at the speed of thought. You know, if I could have just studied
at home tonight until 7:30 and thought myself over here, thought myself
showered and dressed, just thought myself over here, there'd be no
problem. If I could just think
myself healthy again, if I could just eat junkfood and think myself healthy,
that's what I'm frustrated about. I'd like to do that. If I
could just think my house painted, if I could think the trash out [remember
that old TV comedy Bewitched?] If I could just think the furniture and
the paint, everything perfect so my wife's completely happy. But you see, when we get to heaven
[into the Kingdom of God as well, which will be on earth, but also into this
realm outside of Space-Time, our present existence on this holo-deck] God will
have thought ahead of us. And the
thought of the place where we're going to is thought out with an infinite mind
(cf. Revelation 21:1-23, the New Jerusalem, that heavenly city Abraham was
longing for, Hebrews 11:8-10, 13-16). And what will happen when we get there is then we will be allowed to
just let our minds go, and it will never reach it's end. We will step into a place where every
color is beyond what we've ever imagined is perfect, and we will run with it
and never come to the end of it. Every sense, every light, every smell, every sensation, beyond the speed
of thought, the reality, faith, right now, is the foundation of the things that
we're hoping for, it's the conviction of things we have not yet seen.
"By Faith Abel
Offered Unto God A More Excellent Sacrifice Than Cain"
In
the sphere of this faith, the elders, some people we're going to look at, were
well reported of, not by their own effort, but because they believed. Abraham looked for a city whose
builder and maker is God, they give us, we're surrounded with those witnesses,
people who were able to do that without some of the light we have today, of the
New Testament and Christ, they were able to do it. And they're held in front of us. "By faith Abel offered unto God a more
excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was
righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh." (verse 4) By faith,
Abel. Interesting, we get the
first generation born outside of Paradise, first sinners born. And the record begins there. "By faith Abel", somehow these sons, Genesis at the
end of chapter 3 into chapter 4, it says "Unto Adam also and to his wife did
the LORD God make coats of skins, and
clothed them", animal
skins. "And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become
as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life,
and eat, and live forever:" in a fallen state, "therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till
the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden
Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the tree of
life." (Genesis 3:21-24) "And Adam
knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a
man from the LORD. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but
Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time" and the structure is "in the end of days," so there was a specific time, "it
came to pass, that Cain brought the fruit of the ground to offer unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and
of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his
offering: but unto Cain and to his
offering he had not respect. And
Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell." We have the record of these two brothers, the writer to Hebrews telling
us, "By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he
obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh."
(verse 4) Adam and Eve evidently had taught these
two young boys about substitutionary atonement. Abel knew somehow, we don't know if they were eating meat
then, he was keeping sheep. Was it
just for wool, no it had to be for sacrifice too [as well as eating meat,
grrrhÉ] And in the process of
time, in the end of days, specific days, at the end of the week it may indicate
[since God specifically made the Sabbath just recently in Genesis 2:1-3, a
specially sanctified day of rest made by God, as it says there]. And there was an appointed time and
appointed place where they came to worship. They had been taught about worship from their mom and dad. Adam and Eve were driven out of the
Garden, didn't want to leave, they had known the presence of God intimately,
didn't want to leave that. And yet
God was afraid that if they ate of the tree of life in a fallen state life
would go on perpetually in a fallen state. And he set these Cherubims, angelic beings with a flaming
sword to guard the way to the tree of life, at the east of the Garden of
Eden. So somewhere in that
vicinity Adam and Eve must have come to worship. It says they had covered themselves with fig leaves, they
knew they were naked and ashamed, they hadn't known they were naked before,
because they weren't [here comes another doubtful Calvary Chapel belief, based
more on speculation than Biblical fact], I believe they were clothed with
light. It says in Revelation 19
that you and I when we get to heaven [and that occurrence is at the Wedding
Feast of the Lamb, just before we come back down again with Jesus Christ, as
part of his conquering army, coming back to conquer the armies of the world and
set up the Millennial Kingdom of God], we'll be clothed with fine linen, bright
and white, and the linen is the righteousness, it says plural, of the saints,
that's what we'll be clothed with. Well if Adam and Eve were created in his
image and likeness, they were clothed with something similar, because they were
created in their righteousness, in Christ's image and likeness. When they sinned, that went out,
whatever it was [like I said, that's interpretationaly stretching things a bit,
we'll find out when we get there, and what Adam and Eve appeared like in the
Garden too]. They said, 'We
knew we were naked.' God taught them about substitutionary
atonement because they tried to cover themselves, and yet God covered them with
skins, some animal, some creature was slain [probably a lamb], and they
provided a covering, the concept all the way through the Old Testament. We know that, because they communicated
that to their sons, we're assuming they communicated it to both, because Abel
brought the firstling of the flock and of the fat thereof. The fat thereof, he must have known
something about flaying of the sacrifice, opening it up. And now they're still living to be 900
years old. The earth is still
pristine in it's state. And again,
you can imagine, the things, small boys, I think of the things that I wondered
at when I was a kid. Now I walk
around life immune to my surroundings, when I was a kid I noticed every
ant. I noticed the pebbles in the
concrete that were worn to the surface, I noticed cracks, I noticed blades of
grass. I would climb under the
bushes where our cat had killed birds and mice and I would dig up all the
skeletons and try to glue them together when I was a little kid. I was having a blast. Imagine these two young boys coming to
Adam and saying 'Dad you should see this butterfly, six foot across, it's
amazing, oh you got to see this waterfall.' And again,
Adam saying 'yea, that's really cool, guys, that's really somethingÉ' and they're saying 'What is wrong
with Dad? that man is always bummed out, he is never excited about
anything.' And he must have said, 'Boys, these
are all the things that are seen, but on the other side, in Paradise, we saw
what the worlds were made of, the things that are not seen, we've stood face to
face with God, we were in Paradise. We saw the second dimension, the third dimension, you only think you
know, this is only a sad reflection, fallen, of what real beauty is, and real
purpose.' And again, probably the only time they
saw satisfaction, when they saw mom and dad at night, take a lamb, head off to
that altar somewhere in the east of Eden and come back an hour or two later,
bloody, tears in their eyes, peace on their face. And they learned, kids learn by observation. If you tell
kids worship is great, and it ain't great for you, it is never going to be
great for them. They saw something. And it wasn't just blood, the religion
was substitutionary atonement, no doubt, but you know in Leviticus chapter 5 I
think verse 17 it says there that those who are so poor that they can't even
afford to offer turtle doves, can offer two handfuls of grain as a sin
sacrifice. The idea was, it was
faith, it says here, that set aside Abel's sacrifice, not just blood in and of
itself. The Canaanites, the Hittites,
they had all kinds of bloody things. But it was specific faith, in the blood of a substitute which would one
day come. The two boys came to
worship. Cain was not irreligious,
it doesn't say that he didn't worship. They came together, one of them offered the fruit of the ground. That was probably more labor-intensive
than what Abel offered. Abel, you
know, the sheep was eating and growing, he didn't have to do all of that much
work. The other brother sweated
and worked and laboured, and he brought the fruit of the ground. And it says, 'God had respect
unto the sacrifice of Abel, and not unto the offering of Cain.' Some manifestation, some signature, some evidence was
given to show that God approved of one and not the other. And I think the evidence may be hinted
at here, it says 'By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice
than Cain, by which he obtained' that's
passive again, 'he was reported of, he was a witness that he was
righteous, it was reported of him that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts' it's
interesting, it says 'God testifying upon his gifts, God
testifying upon [in the Greek] his gifts.' I
believe that's what gave evidence that the sacrifice was accepted. In Genesis 15, verse 17 we know there
that Abraham offered a sacrifice, and he divided the parts and he laid it out,
and God passed through the midst in a burning pot and furnace with flame,
giving evidence there that he was approving. Leviticus chapter 10, with Nadab and Abihu we hear that at
the alter, the divine flame came from the alter and consumed them, that God
gave evidence of his disapproval there. Judges chapter 6 when Gideon is there threshing and the LORD comes to him and manifests himself and
then tells him to make up this offering, and he does, and it says the angel of
the LORD's presence there touched it with his
staff, and it burst into flames and he went up in the flame, God signifying
that he approved of the offering. Same thing happened to Minoa, Samson's father, the presence of the angel
of the LORD going up in the flame. We think of David in the threshing
floor of Ornan, and it tells us in 1st Chronicles there that when he
made the offering, that the fire fell from heaven upon it. 2nd Chronicles chapter 7,
verses 1 to 3, Solomon at the dedication of the Temple, when he finally cut
open the sacrifices fire fell, it was divine, God signifying that he gave
approval. Of course Elijah on
Mount Carmel, the fire fell from heaven. And it says here "God testifying upon his gifts" that he had approved. And I think that's what happened, and I
think they came to that east gate, whatever that was, one of them offering the
fruit of the ground, the other offering a lamb, and the fat thereof, laid it
out and flayed it. And the fire of
God, whether it proceeded from the Cherubim or whether it fell from heaven,
consumed it, and signified God's approval. Both men fallen, both men sinners, both men struggled. You know, we hear of the righteous line
of Seth, there's no such thing, they were all outside of Paradise, they were
sinners, they all had to offer sacrifices.
Two Major Religious
Systems Flow From These Two Boys
In
fact, there were never two men more alike than Cain and Abel, never. They were more alike than any identical
twins that have ever been born. God created Adam, programmed him [and the hardware part of him, every
cell, having it's own hardware program we call DNA, and the software part of
him, called in the Bible the "spirit in man" or the "spirit of man," giving
Adam his human intellect and mental computing power, the power to be able to
think and reason and problem solve and learn on a far greater scale than
animals. For what animal can learn
history, mathematics, astronomy, all the sciences, literature, languages, and
even physics to the point where mankind can blow up the earth by splitting the
atom?]. God demonstrated to him
that it wasn't good to be alone, caused a deep sleep to fall on him, and took some of the flesh thereof
from his side, and with that flesh he made Eve and brought her to Adam. Eve was not from a different
family. She was made of the same
DNA, the same structure that Adam was made of. [At this point, God must have modified the software in Adam,
dividing certain mental traits we consider manly and leaving them with Adam,
and dividing off to Eve certain traits that are womanly. See http://www.HOWMARRIAGEWORKS.com to see these different but
complementary mental traits that exist between men and women.] Those two boys looked more alike than
any identical twins, there wasn't any dominant and recessive genes. Nobody could say 'Boy, he takes
after his mother's side of the family, boy he takes after his father's side of
the family,' there was
only one side to the family. He
couldn't say one of the boys hung out with a bad crowd, there was no crowd, it
was just the four of them. There
was no peer pressure. If there was
peer pressure, Cain would have offered a lamb instead. There was no gangster rap, there was no
rage music, there was no hack 'em up movies, no bad influences. God does this all on purpose because,
from this scene flows the stream of all religious practice in the world today,
there is the religion of Cain, and there is the religion of God, the religion
of Abel. And those two streams
flow from this place, the religion of faith and the religion of works. And God made sure it flowed from a
singular source. They didn't even
have to fight over whose house they were going over to on Thanksgiving, there
was only one family. There's the
religion of do, and there's the religion of done. We worship at the alter of done, Jesus said, 'It is finished,
Tutelisti, paid in full, done.' He ain't done with you, but it
is done. [The new covenant, in
it's simplest definition (Hebrews 8:9-13; Jeremiah 31:31-34) is God writing his
laws within our hearts and minds, so this is a process of God doing within our hearts and minds, and
within this process we have a vital part to play, so there is a doing portion to our personal salvation as
well, as Pastor Joe says.] Atonement, redemption. And
then there's a religion of works. And Cain rose up, against his brother. God said, 'Won't you be accepted,' literally, 'if you offer correctly,' he could have gone back and gotten a lamb and offered and
God would have accepted. But
there's something about that, when people work hard, and they huff and puff,
and blow that house down, 'And I put the carpets in the church and the
stained glass windows, put the offering envelope in every week, and you're
going to tell me that Junkie friend of yours says he accept Jesus and he's going
to heaven and I'm not!?' You know that argument. And religion, whether it was the death
of Abel, or of the Prophets, or of the death of Christ, or the death of the
martyrs, the Inquisition [of which my extremist Catholic sister says the Inquisition
was to save souls], religion, the religion of works always persecutes the
religion of faith. It's all over
the news today, it's all flowed from there, it hasn't changed, it hasn't
changed. You and I, by faith, we
take hold of the things that God has for us. It's the foundation of what we hope for, it's the conviction
of that which we have not yet seen. We know that God has accepted others, by it and in the sphere of it,
other's have received a good report, he's given us that great cloud of witnesses
around us. 'And we know, and
we perceive, that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, and that the
things that do appear are made of things which are not seen, we know that [and now modern physicists, the most
brilliant minds in science, know that also].' It's a conviction. We
believe in another realm. 'By
faith, Abel, by faith, that's what set him aside, offered a more excellent
sacrifice to God.' Éthe challenge, what does Abel have to
say to us, the first witness that we encounter here, and that we'll get to
tonight? (and I was hoping to get
further, but.) Abel has to say to
us, that the closest person to you in the world, may not agree with what you
believe. You believe that through
the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ your sins are forgiven and you're
going to go to heaven [or into the Kingdom of heaven, whether on earth during
the Millennium or thereafter, which is Biblically accurate, and also into the
realm God exists in outside of Space & Time, wherever and whatever that is.] The closest person to you on the planet
may challenge that, it may be a wife or a husband. It may be your best friend where you work [I've had a few of
those, really close, could talk about most everything, except my beliefs]. It may cost you. Hostility may be piled up against you,
not because you deserve it, but because works, the religion of works, the
religion of do can't stand the religion of done, the religion of faith. But that's exactly what the writer to
Hebrews has been encouraging them about now, going into eleven chapters.
'Let Us Run The
Race Set Before Us, Setting Aside Every Sin That So Easily Besets Us'
And
he's going to say 'Let us run, with endurance, the race that's set before
us, laying aside every sin that doth so easily beset us,' (Hebrews 12:1b) it's interesting, Camel Morgan
translates that "Sin in good standing." You
know, there's some sins out there, the Church is so watered down and luke warm
now, 'Oh it's ok to do this,' I mean, sin is so vile now, and it's so disgusting now in the world around us,
that we're almost glad to hear about good old red-blooded American sin, it
ain't so bad anymore, on the scale of insanity. But the Bible doesn't teach that, the Bible doesn't teach that. [Comment: again, the Bible definition for sin is found in 1st John 3:4, which
states, "Sin is the transgression of the law." When John wrote that, the New Testament didn't exist as a finished work
yet, so all that they had was the Old Testament, so that referred to the Old
Testament Law of God. Interesting. Now we've seen
in Hebrews 10 that the ceremonial laws of God found in the Old Testament, the
"Law of the Offerings" has been abrogated by the very sacrifice of Jesus
Christ, but the rest, the moral laws of the Ten Commandments are still in place.] "Let us lay aside every sin that so
easily doth beset us." I've just, when my kids and I were
watching the Olympic swimmers the other night on TV, and they've got these all
different kinds now, spandex, they're not like Steve Erwin the Crocodile man or
sharks or something, he still has his boots and his shorts and his hat on, and
I'm thinking, you know, they make better gear now for what you're doing. You don't see guys in the Olympics
jumping in with one of those hats, their boots and their socks, you know,
because they strip down, they try to take off every thing, everything that
might impede them. And then there
are new spandex rubber suits, they contract, and all the stripes go this way,
because it makes them more streamlined to go through the water, you don't want
anything going this way anymore. [The logic being that if the new covenant is defined by God writing his
laws within our hearts and our minds, we don't want to be impeding what
God is doing by sinning, which is the antithesis of what God is trying to place within our hearts and
minds. That should be a
no-brainer.] 'Let us lay aside every sin, weight, that so easily doth
beset us, and run the race, run the race.' It
may cost you a best friend. Abel
stands up and says, 'You can do it, you can do it. I had one fourth of the world's
population against me.' [he's laughing] 'A billion and a half people hated my guts.' 'It cost me my life. But my faith is still speaking.' His faith
still speaketh. Jesus tells us in Luke
chapter 11, verses 50 and 51, 'that all of the blood of the prophets was shed
from Abel' calls
him a prophet, to Zechariah.' But why is
Abel a prophet? Because in
Revelation 19 it tells us that the testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy. And that Abel, when he offered his
sacrifice, was looking forward to the One who would come. God must have told Adam and Eve, 'This
is going to be the way back to the Tree of Life, it's going to be through the
death of an innocent substitute.' That can be offensive. John tells us in his first Epistle, he
says, 'For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning,
that we should love one another, not as Cain, who was of that wicked one,' Cain, who was of that wicked one, which is not a weird
theory, I'm not gonna go there, but. 'who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. Wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and
his brother's were righteous.' Satan didn't go away after he tempted
Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter 3. He showed up again in Genesis chapter 4. And Satan hated the sacrifice of Abel more than Cain
did. And he incited him, and has
been inciting the bloodshed of untold millions throughout history,
religion. You think of the trouble
in the world today, Jerusalem, the center of world tension. It isn't anywhere else, it's there,
Muslims on Friday, Jews on Saturday, Christians on Sunday, fighting over a
rocky hill that you wouldn't pay money for. And there's nothing there but the conviction of human
hearts, it's the tension of the world today. And that boils down to our homes, 'A prophet is not
without honour except in his own house, and amongst his own friends.' What is the cost to you to stand up in school, some of you go to this
school, it's a Christian school, and you're afraid to stand up and take a stand
for Jesus, in a Christian school. It says here, 'let us run the race with
endurance, the race that's set before us,' because in our hearts we are laying
ahold of something real, it's the foundation of something we're hoping for,
it's the conviction of things we haven't seen yet with our eyes. And I'll tell you this, as life goes
on, and pain becomes part of it, and heartache, this world becomes less and
less attractive, and the next one, yet unseen, becomes sweeter and sweeter and
sweeter. And because it does, the
blood of Jesus becomes more central and more central and more central, what
he's done on our behalf. You know,
I remember the reaction of some after seeing the movie The Passion of
Christ, you know, you walk
away from that thinking 'He held nothing back.' Because you're kind of shocked and ambushed by the visual thing of
it. I remember thinking, as I
watched it, 'He didn't hold anything back, he gave everything.' I remember my son saying to me, 'I kept thinking, Stop them! Stop
them! You can stop them! Stop them! Stop them!' He could have. He held nothing back, for you and
I. And he's purchased us all that
we believe in now. And I don't
want to hold anything back, either. I do, but I don't want to. I want to lay aside every weight, those things that are not expedient,
not sinful, but if they're not expedient, and I want to run. You know, I think we only have half a
lap left! It isn't that far to the
finish line now. [i.e. he's
talking about current events heading toward, leading us toward World War III,
the Tribulation, leading to the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ, and the
first resurrection, the Rapture, whenever that event takes place within the
timeframe of those events (it's hotly debated amongst Christian denominations
when that will be).] And we want
to say with Paul, 'I fought the fight, kept the faith, finished my
course, henceforth there's a crown of righteousness laid up for me, and not for
me only, but for all those who love his appearing.' Let's
do that, let's run well. You know,
I want to be a good finisher, I want to be a good finisher. I don't want to
just run the race, and then keel over before the finish line, or get caught in
a tar pit or something. We want to
be good finishersÉ[transcript of a connective expository sermon on Hebrews
11:1-4, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500
Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]
related
links:
Be
sure to order the movie "The Genesis Code" at:
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