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All right, well, beautiful singing! If I’ve not met you, my name is Aaron, and I’m the preaching pastor here. I’m glad that you’re with us today. You came on a good day because we’re having a potluck afterwards—a little Thanksgiving potluck that we’re going to have as a church.
So if you have a Bible with you, please open up to the book of Hebrews today. Our text for study is from Hebrews 11:4-7. If you don’t have a Bible with you, fear not; there are Bibles scattered throughout the pews. That’s on page 584. The words should also be on the screen to my sides.
Let me read the text, and then we’ll pray, and then we will get to work. So Hebrews 11, starting in verse 4 through verse 7. Please hear the words of our God. This is what Scripture says:
“By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous. God commended him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death. He was not found because God had taken him. Now, before he was taken, he was commended as pleasing to God. Without faith, it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists, and he rewards those who seek him. By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
Okay, so that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?
Lord, thank you for bringing us together into this room, into this moment, to hear from your word. Lord, we do pray that your Spirit would be active in this time. Your Spirit would open up your word so that we may believe and apply it to our lives. And Lord, I pray this time that you would open up your word in ways that we see Jesus more clearly. Lord, please help me to be a good communicator. Please help the congregation to be good listeners. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
So this morning, let me start off by explaining a theological term that scholars refer to as the covenant of works. Now, to understand the covenant of works, we need to go back to the very beginning. We’re reading Scripture that, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them.
As part of God’s creative work, God created a garden called Eden, which is a word that means delight—something that was certainly true of this garden. It was a delightful place, a place where there was no sickness and no death. Rather, the garden was a place of harmony and peace. This was a place where God dwelled in perfect harmony with his creation, including perfect harmony with mankind.
In the garden, there was a man named Adam, whom God formed from the dust of the earth, and then later Eve, to be the first woman, who God created by taking out a rib from Adam to be Adam’s helpmate. As God created our first parents, he did so by placing his very image on Adam and Eve.
As they lived in the garden, they did so in fellowship with God and with each other. They were to work, guard, and protect Eden, doing so in ways that they were to expand the garden of Eden throughout the entire earth, as they were to be fruitful and multiply, taking the image of God that was placed in them to the very ends of the earth.
In the beginning, as Adam and Eve lived in the garden in perfect peaceful harmony with God, they were in pristine condition, holy and righteous before God, without sin. They were innocent, blameless in every way. This pristine condition that they enjoyed—one where they were holy and righteous before God—is one they could continue to enjoy. They continued to be pristine, innocent, and blameless with the condition that they obeyed God in the word that he gave to them.
This time, when mankind was innocent, blameless, and without sin, is referred to as the covenant of works. Through their own works, Adam and Eve maintained a righteous standing before God. In this time, during the covenant of works, one can say that in the beginning, the righteous shall live by works, which our first parents were able to do.
As I mentioned, in the beginning, they were pristine, without sin, blameless, and innocent, surrounding their own merit, their own works. They were righteous. But if you read through the Bible, as you know, the pristine condition did not last forever. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, fell prey to a deceiver who tricked them into questioning God.
As they questioned God, they began to disobey God and the word that He gave to them. They sinned; they fell short of what God created them to do. They broke the covenant of works. As sin rushed into God’s once perfect creation, it not only brought sickness and death, but mankind lost this pristine condition, where we are all now stained with sin to the point that the covenant of works that our first parents broke would be a covenant that mankind could now never fulfill.
Now, on this side of the fall of mankind, as sin rushed in, the righteous could never again be righteous by works. Because of that, as mankind seeks to be righteous before God, we actually need a foreign righteousness—one outside of us—to now be counted as our righteousness.
This leads to our text today, which picks up on the storyline of Scripture that took place after the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden, where we see the redemptive work of God and where righteousness is now found. It is not by works; rather, it is by faith.
So now, one cannot say the righteous shall live by works; it doesn’t work that way. Now, the righteous can only live by faith. This is something we looked at a few weeks back in our study of Hebrews. Remember how we looked at the Old Testament book of Habakkuk and a quote there that simply declares—yet powerfully declares—the righteous shall live by faith.
It is by faith we are united to the alien righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, where by faith His righteousness is counted as our righteousness, which in the Old Testament was a faith in Christ to come. For us in the New Testament age, our faith is in Christ, who indeed did come and promises to come again.
If you were with us last week, I mentioned we are really kicking off a section in Hebrews that is grounded in faith, where throughout chapter 11, the word “faith” continues to come up over and over again—in fact, over 20 times. As the writer of Hebrews points out numerous different Old Testament characters who lived by faith, including three characters that we’re going to look at today, we hope that these characters who lived by faith will help the readers of Hebrews also to live by faith, to do so in ways that we’re looking to Jesus Christ, which, by the way, is actually the requirement for us to live by faith. We cannot do so outside of looking to Jesus Christ.
If you were with us last week, remember in this section of faith that started out with the writer of Hebrews giving us a definition of what faith is, just to help ensure we are all on the same page as we work through the various characters. Let me just give you that definition again to help us be on the same page.
So Hebrews 11:1 says this: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” This is something we talked about last week. Faith is not something like some type of pie-in-the-sky, wishful thinking, desire, or feeling or emotion. It’s not something just kind of floating around out there, detached from everything or anything. Rather, faith is an assurance; it’s a conviction. It’s one that’s grounded in who God is, the word that He’s given to us, and the work that He has done on our behalf—in particular, the work of God found in Jesus Christ, who, unlike Adam, did not fail.
This is why He is the true and better Adam. He actually is the one who fulfilled the covenant of works, where He was sinless in all that He did. Yet for His joy, for the love of His people, the Lord Jesus laid down His life to pay the penalty of sin, only to pick it back up on the third day, where He calls out to all who would hear and believe, to turn and trust in Him, to put their faith in Him, so that by faith they would be united to Him, where His righteousness would be counted as theirs.
This brings us back to our text this morning. As mentioned, we’re going to be looking at three different Old Testament characters who lived by faith. If you want to start looking back, starting at verse 4, and as you’re looking back, just notice that the author does a little bit of chronological grouping of the characters. If you look at verse 4 and keep following through to the end of chapter 11, you will see that the author seems to group characters that were in the same epoch, age, or era of Scripture.
Today, the group of three characters we will examine are from the same kind of epoch of Scripture of what took place after the fall into the flood. The next set of characters we will look at is from the age of the patriarchs, who came right after the flood—Abraham, his wife Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob. The following group will look at the era of Moses and the exodus that led God’s people to the Promised Land, which is almost like a new Eden that they’re entering. By the time we finish off chapter 11, we will conclude with an assortment of different characters—some of them pretty famous Old Testament figures, while others are just nameless, forgotten characters.
People who lived in the era after the Promised Land but before the coming of Christ. As we look at each of these groups, each era they are in, and each of these characters, we see the same truth over and over again: the righteous shall live by faith since the fall of Adam and Eve. That is the plan—the only plan for redemption—the only way one would be counted as righteous before God. It is by faith, not by works.
Okay, so verse 4: the first character we meet is a man named Abel. If you read through the book of Genesis, you may remember that Abel is actually the son of Adam and Eve, and he was a brother of a man named Cain, who our text also speaks about today.
Now, as we meet these two brothers in Genesis, Cain and Abel, we don’t know much about them—at least not their early life. What we do know in Genesis 4 is the vocations, like the jobs that they had, which were two different ones. Cain was a farmer, one who worked the soil. Abel was basically a shepherd who tended to flocks.
As the two brothers worked their vocations, we see in Genesis 4 that they would bring offerings to the Lord—offerings that lined up with their vocation. In Genesis 4, Abel gave unto the Lord as he would bring an offering of the fat portion of the firstborn of his flock. The fat portion is important because that was the best portion; that’s what he would give to the Lord.
Cain, in Genesis 4, would bring some fruits of the soil of the land as an offering to the Lord. We don’t know anything in terms of the quality of Cain’s offering; he just brought some fruit of the soil. As these two brothers gave their offerings, we see in Genesis and in our text today in Hebrews that the Lord responded very differently to these two offerings.
With Abel and his offering, we see that the Lord looked upon it with favor and received it. But with Cain, his offering was not looked upon with favor; rather, the Lord rejected Cain’s offering. There is obviously a lot of interest in why that was. Did God accept Abel’s offering simply because it was a better type of offering—like the animal sacrifice that was just better? Whereas Cain’s offering was rejected just because God didn’t want an offering from the land?
While some throughout church history have certainly wondered if that was the case, I don’t think that’s why Abel’s was accepted and why Cain was rejected. The reason why can be found in other places in Scripture, where we see that the Lord actually accepts both kinds of offerings—animal offerings as well as offerings from the land.
Now, the animal offerings are all over the Old Testament. In fact, a lot of the book of Hebrews that we’ve been working through the last several weeks speaks about Old Testament animal offerings—sacrifices of blood. But as mentioned, there are also land offerings in the Old Testament, where God instructed his people to give an offering of the land. You can read about these offerings in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 26.
So I don’t think the rejection of Cain was simply because of the type of offering. Others have wondered if perhaps the rejection of Cain’s offering had to do with the quality of the offering that he brought. As mentioned, with Abel, he gave the best portion—the fat portion of the firstborn of his flock. But with Cain, the Bible doesn’t speak about the quality of the offering that he brought.
This silence about the quality of Cain’s offering is actually a telling silence. Perhaps it indicates that Cain just kind of threw together some type of offering, where maybe he held back the best of his crop and just gave unto the Lord some of the less desirable portions of the crop.
However, what we do know is that the big difference between these two offerings was the heart by which they were given. In our text today, by faith, Abel offered up to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. Sure, Cain went through the motions of his offering; in a sense, he did what he was supposed to do—he did his duty—but that was as deep as it went. He did not give the offering by faith.
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, which was true of Abel. Because Abel offered up his sacrifice by faith, the Lord accepted it. So I don’t think it was necessarily the type or the quality of the offering; rather, it was the heart—the faith by which the offering was given—that the Lord accepted in our text.
Through his offering of faith, Abel was commended as righteous. It was not the work of the offering by itself that caused Abel to be commended as righteous; it was his faith by which he gave his offering—the offering of the best portion. That is why he was commended—by his faith. God commended Abel by accepting his gift.
Keep going. In our text, through his faith, though he died, Hebrews tells us he still speaks. Let’s remind ourselves here how Abel died. Remember how he died? He died by the hands of his brother Cain because Cain was jealous and angry. He was angry that God did not accept his offering, so he killed his brother. He did so even though the Lord warned Cain that sin was like crouching at the door. But Cain did nothing with the warning, which should remind us of all the warnings we’ve seen in Hebrews—the fear of doing nothing with the warning.
Cain rejected the warning. He acted in his jealousy, anger, and bitterness, and he struck down his brother in one of his fields. But in Hebrews, even though Abel was struck down as he shed his blood because of his faith, his death was not in vain. Rather, his blood still speaks. It is still testifying to the truth—the truth that the righteous shall live by faith, where God accepts all who by faith come to Him.
Now, this truth that Abel still speaks is important to all of us. Remember the context of Hebrews. This would have been particularly important for the first readers who were feeling more and more of a squeeze because of their faith—where they had more and more to endure because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Here, enabled, they are reminded—and we are reminded—that whatever suffering may come our way because of our faith, that suffering is not in vain.
Rather, God uses the suffering of his people of faith to speak to the hearts of others, to speak in ways that help others to possibly come to faith or endure in their faith or persevere in their faith. This is the way—I think this is why we love to hear testimonies or read biographies of those who have gone before us in the faith, who lived by faith in hard, difficult, challenging situations and times. Because we know God uses his suffering people to speak to our hearts.
So for us, that’s the first character this morning: the character of Abel, who gave the better offering—one that was accepted as an offering given by faith. Keep going!
Verse 5: let’s read our second character, a man named Enoch, who we actually know less about than Cain and Abel. All we know of Enoch is what’s tucked away in Genesis 5, where he’s listed among a bunch of other names who came after Adam, who came from the family of Adam. We also see his name come up a couple of times in the New Testament. The Gospel of Luke actually lists him in a genealogy as well.
But then we also read about Enoch in the book of Jude, where we see that Enoch was a preacher, but that’s really it. We don’t know a whole lot about Enoch. Now, back to Genesis. In the section where the names of Enoch are listed, we see that this was during a time where people lived hundreds and hundreds of years, with Methuselah being the one who lived the longest—969 long years—which, for me, admittedly, is hard to wrap my mind around.
What I will say is that in this era that we’re in today in Hebrews, in this epoch—from Abel to Noah—after the fall and before the flood, the world we now live in seems similar yet different from the world that they lived in. Even New Testament 2 Peter 3 basically tells us that the world that then existed—the world that Cain, Abel, Enoch, and Noah lived in before the flood—that one was deluged with water and it perished.
So that world, in a sense, no longer exists. The pre-flood world that Enoch lived in is similar yet different. One of the ways it’s different is the lifespans of people. By the way, just on a side note, if this interests you, there’s a ministry called Answers in Genesis that I think is actually pretty helpful to give us some categories of what the pre-flood world might have looked like. You might not agree with all that they suggest or think there, but I do think they provide a lot of good things to help us consider and think about what this might have been.
Now, back to what we know of Enoch from Genesis 5. Let me actually just read what we know from Genesis 5 concerning Enoch. It says this: “When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah.” As we mentioned, Methuselah was the oldest man recorded in Scripture. It also says, “Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Enoch were 365 years.”
Then Genesis goes on to say, “Enoch walked with God,” which is the second time that Genesis records that phrase. This stresses a point. As he walked with God, Genesis records that “he was not, for God took him.” The taking here was not through the means of death, where maybe a person dies, and we might say something along the lines that the Lord took this person or took him or her to be home with him.
So that’s not the taking of Enoch as we read in verse 5 of our text. But by faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him. Here, the author of Hebrews emphasizes that point: how Enoch did not die—how God took him and brought him into the heavenly places before he tasted death.
Just look a little more closely at verses 5 and 6. Notice how the writer of Hebrews stresses that point: “Enoch was taken up; he should not see death; he was not found; God had taken him.” The next phrase is “before he was taken.” The author of Hebrews here is really emphasizing that point—by faith, as Enoch walked with God, God took him.
Keep going! The end of verse 5 tells us that before he was taken, Enoch was commended as having pleased God. This is a pleasing—a commending—because Enoch walked with God, because Enoch had faith in God. These two realities always go hand in hand. When we walk with God, we walk by faith. When we have faith, we walk with God. These things always come together.
As mentioned, the faith, the walk of faith that Enoch had was pleasing to God. Much like Abel before him, Enoch was commended for this walk of faith. This walk pleased God, which is pleasing because God actually created mankind to do that in the beginning. We were created to walk with God—to live in harmony in relationship with God. That was our purpose from the beginning—all the way back to the garden. That’s what pleases our Lord: for his people to walk with Him.
By the way, kind of on this note, it’s a reminder that God is not some type of harsh, distant, maybe apathetic deity who is just floating around at the other end of the universe with little to no concern for his people. Or if he has concern, it’s more of a concern of frustration or disappointment that he has towards his people.
Or maybe he annoyingly stops whatever he was doing that he really enjoyed to have to come over to rebuke us just so he can go back to his “me time.” Friends, God delights to walk with his people of faith. God is pleased to walk with us.
Keep going! Verse 6. In contrast to walking by faith, which pleases God, verse 6 presents these words: “And without faith, it is impossible to please him.” It’s impossible to please God without faith because we do not have the righteousness of Christ imputed on us that comes by faith. Without the righteousness of Christ, we’re still dead in our trespasses and sin. We are at enmity with God—separated from his love and mercy—and under his judgment. This does not please God.
In God’s holiness, He’s not pleased with evil, corruption, and sin. Because of that, if one does not have faith, if one does not have Christ’s righteousness counted as their righteousness, they are not able to draw near to God in ways that they can walk with God like Enoch did in the text.
For whoever would draw near to God must believe. They must have faith in two things: that he—meaning God—exists, and that he rewards those who seek Him.
Let me hit pause and just address these two things we must believe in order to draw near to God. First, the text tells us we must believe that he exists. This believing that he exists is not some type of general acknowledgment of a higher being—that, yes, I do believe there is some type of God out there. As long as I believe genuinely, generically, that there’s a God, it doesn’t matter what I believe about him, just that I believe there’s one—that’s all you need to draw near.
That’s not what we see in Scripture when it comes to faith to believe. Rather, Scripture tells us to believe that he exists is to believe in who he is as he’s revealed to us in Scripture. To believe in the one true and living God—indeed, that he exists—to believe, in particular, when it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ, the second member of the Godhead, the one who is true man, true God—the One who died and rose again to bring about the forgiveness of sin, that we need forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ.
That is how we can draw near to God. We must believe that he exists, right? We don’t just believe in any old God; we believe in the one true living God as he is revealed to us in Jesus Christ.
Second, let me address the drawing near to God also requires us to believe that he rewards those who seek Him. By the way, this is really why we draw near to God in the first place: that he rewards those who come to Him.
In Scripture, drawing near to God comes with the reward of forgiveness of sin, which we all need. Drawing near to God comes with the reward of living a life filled with the fruit of the Spirit. When we draw near to God, it comes with the reward of eternal life itself that is to come. But ultimately, the reward of drawing near to God that we must believe in is that we have God Himself, where He will be our God, and we will be his people.
That’s the reward that we’re after. By the way, this reminds us of the promise of the new covenant that we discussed several times in our study of Hebrews—that God will be our God and we will be his people. That’s the reward!
Friends, why do we draw near? Because we want God. We want to draw near to Him. Remember the parable of the treasure hidden in the field? Remember how a man found a treasure in the field? He was so excited about that treasure that he went and sold all that he had to have enough money to go back, purchase the field, and obtain the reward of the treasure.
Friends, by faith, that’s why we draw near to God: because we believe that he rewards his people with the reward of himself—the one who is always better and always superior to all things. He is the one who is worth leaving all things behind in order to have.
Keep going! The last character we’ll look at today is one you’re probably most familiar with: the character of Noah. Noah is also listed with Enoch in the genealogy of Genesis 5. But different from Enoch and even different from Cain and Abel, we actually know a decent amount of information about Noah and his life.
Starting in Genesis 6, we read that Noah lived in a very, very dark time, where the wickedness of mankind was so great that every intention and thought of the heart was continually for evil. The book of Genesis tells us there was corruption and violence that continued to fill the heart of mankind.
This evil, this corruption, was so rampant during the time of Noah that we see in Genesis that God regretted that he made mankind, as the heart of God was grieved by all of the evil. However, in Genesis 6, even though the heart of God was grieved by the evil that filled the earth, God desired to keep a promise that he made all the way back to Genesis 3 to Adam and Eve—that through their line, which ultimately comes through Noah as well, a Savior would come.
In line with his eternal desire and promise to keep this promise of the Savior to come, we read in Genesis 6 that Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord, where God would spare Noah, his wife, and his sons and daughters-in-law from a great flood. Through the floodwaters, God would judge mankind for corruption, evil, and violence.
Whereas judgment came outside of Noah, his wife, his three sons, and three daughters, as well as male and female creatures of every sort of animal, the earth would be destroyed. As mentioned, similar yet different from the world we live in today, the Lord, as he found favor in Noah, told Noah of the flood to come.
The Lord told Noah that he would indeed save his family and every sort of animal through an ark, which is not an ark that was just dropped down from heaven, but an ark that Noah would have to build—a massive ark, in fact, so massive that it would take years and years to build.
Now, Genesis does not give us an exact number of how long it took, but based on what we see in the narrative in Genesis, scholars think it may have taken around 60 to 80 years to build this ark, which is a long time to, by faith, take God at his word—the word of salvation and judgment—to build this ark. This would have taken much perseverance by Noah.
During that time, can you imagine the ridicule and chastisement that had to come his way from those around him who watched Noah year after year build this ark? Scripture doesn’t give us any insight into how others treated Noah during this long ark-building process, but because of how evil the hearts were, it seems very realistic and probable that he was receiving all kinds of harsh ridicule for his faith in God.
However, in our text in Hebrews 11:7, we read that as Noah was instructed by God to build this massive ark by faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear of God, constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By faith, our text tells us, Noah condemned the world.
Meaning that year after year, as Noah swung his hammer by faith, or cut the boards by faith, or applied the pitch by faith, or framed all the various rooms inside the ark by faith, he was doing it as a witness to the truth of God, doing so in ways that stood in opposition to the evil and corruption that filled the world.
In our text, we read that Noah, by faith, became an heir of righteousness that comes by faith. The work itself of building the ark did not make him righteous, but the faith—the faith that compelled Noah to work—that’s what made Noah an heir of righteousness. One who is accepted by God, saved by God, saved for God—all by faith.
Now, let’s close this time. Let me just do so by giving you a few organized thoughts from this passage. I have just three this morning.
First, the most important thing to think about in this text is that the righteous shall live by faith. I mentioned this many times in the sermon, but I want to mention again here just how important this is to be counted as righteous before God—the very God that one day we will all have to stand before and give an account on the day judgment is to come. The only way we can be declared righteous and justified before the courtroom of God is by faith—faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Faith in Jesus—the one who lived the life that we could never live, one without sin, perfect in every way. Yet according to God’s good eternal plan, the Lord Jesus Christ stepped into the courtroom as our representative, where he took on the judgment of our sin that we deserve by dying in our place on a cross to bear the judgment and the wrath of God.
Jesus Christ died and was buried, only to rise again on the third day, providing forgiveness of sin to all who by faith come to him, where by faith in him, his righteousness is counted as ours, imputed on us. Friends, that’s such good news to us! We’re not left with a covenant of works that we can never fulfill.
It is good news to us as God loves His people and sent His Son so that by faith we would be united to him. In our text, Abel, by faith, was commended by God; by faith, Enoch was taken by God; and by faith, Noah became an heir of righteousness.
That’s not just for them; just two more things to define this on the righteous shall live by faith.
While we hope that we all have a strong and growing faith, where like we’re increasingly becoming faithful friends, it’s actually not the strength of our faith or our faithfulness that makes one righteous. It’s the object of our faith. That is how we are counted as righteous.
See, it’s not that we don’t want to have a strong faith. It’s not that we don’t want to be found faithful, but it’s the object of our faith—Jesus. That is how we’re counted as righteous.
Second, let me just mention that without faith in Jesus Christ, no one is righteous. Not one. This morning, if you’re here and you do not have faith in Jesus Christ, we are so thankful that you’re here with us today because we want to encourage you. We want to plead with you to put your faith in Jesus Christ in ways that you’re trusting in Him.
Trust that he died for you, only to rise again. Trust that he will reward you with himself if you were to seek him today so you may join in declaring what we declare: that the righteous shall live by faith.
Friend, if that’s you this morning, I would love to talk to you at the end of the service.
To keep going! First, the righteous shall live by faith. Second, friends, living by faith comes with a cost. It always does. Whether it’s the cost that we pay when we turn to trust in Jesus for the first time—the cost of leaving all things behind in order to have him—or just the cost that comes of trying to grow in our faith to grow in faithfulness, there’s always a cost.
It’s not cheap to live out our faith in ways that are growing in greater and greater faithfulness; it’s costly. In our text, in the three characters today, as well as the characters we’re working through in the weeks to come, they paid a cost to live by faith.
For Abel, the cost was his life, as his brother struck him in an act of jealousy. For Enoch, the cost was the chastisement of others. As mentioned earlier, the book of Jude tells us that Enoch was a preacher. As Enoch preached to the world around him, Jude tells us that the world was filled with ungodly sinners who spoke out against him, which I think here refers primarily to the Lord whom Enoch preached about.
But no doubt, the ungodly sinners also spoke out about him, as the people Enoch preached to, Jude tells us, were grumblers and fault-finders—people who followed their own evil desires, who boasted about themselves while flattering others simply for their own advantage.
For us, no doubt Enoch paid a cost to live by faith as he walked with God and testified about God. Likewise, no doubt Noah would have paid a very similar cost as he lived out his life as a witness to the Lord.
As mentioned earlier, Scripture doesn’t share a lot of details about how others treated Noah as he built his ark, which took year after year after year for him to do. Because of what we know about the time of Noah and how evil mankind was, he had to feel ridicule from others.
Friends, as we live by faith, as we seek to grow in that faith, there will be a cost. For some of us here, that cost might mean some embarrassment—maybe the cost of pride. We have to humble ourselves, confess sin—whatever sin it is that you’ve been harboring and holding onto.
For others, to live by faith might mean you have to give up certain activities to ensure that you’re not making a habit of forsaking the assembly, which Hebrews 10 warns us about.
For others, to live by faith might be a cost of giving up some type of control of whatever it is that you’re seeking to control in your life.
For fathers, to live by faith, the cost might mean you have to take off the basket that you’ve been hiding under so that your light—the light of Jesus Christ—might shine to those around you in ways that you’re testifying to Jesus Christ, which admits they could give us levels of pushback that no doubt Enoch and Noah experienced.
Fathers, to live by faith, it might mean the cost of laying down desires that are hindering you from walking with God in ways in which you’re delighting in him this morning. As we consider the characters of faith, may it challenge us in our faith. May we be bolder as we seek to live out our faith and pay whatever cost may come our way.
Third, living by faith comes with a reward—a reward that is actually far greater than the cost. I think that’s really important for us to consider as we think about whatever cost may be before us even this morning. Whatever cost it may be, the reward is worth it; the reward is better; it’s superior.
That’s why in the parable of the treasure hidden in the field, this man was so joyful. He was willing to pay the cost to sell all that he had in order to buy the field to get the treasure. The treasure was so much better—so much superior—that he had to have it. In fact, he would have been a fool to not pay the cost and miss out on the reward.
In the text, Abel paid a great cost—his life—but the reward of being commended as righteous continues to speak through his faith, even though he died. Yes, Enoch paid a great cost—no doubt chastisement from others—but the reward was that he was able to walk with God in ways that pleased God, where God was so pleased that He took Enoch up to the heavenly places.
Yes, Noah paid a great cost—no doubt chastisement from others, the cost of spending a long, long, long time doing hard, tedious, monotonous, continuous work to build the ark. But the reward was salvation—salvation for he and his household as he became an heir of righteousness.
So yes, friends, if you and I are going to live by faith, there will be a cost. But friend, the reward for whoever would draw near to God is better; it’s superior. The reward that comes by faith is the reward of Jesus Christ—walking with him, being used by him, and one day being taken by him—whoever that may be, whether it comes through death or maybe we just so happen to be here when the Lord comes again to judge the living and the dead.
Whoever it is, for those who have faith will be taken by Jesus to be with Jesus, where we will live in a home that looks a lot like Eden—a place that will be paradise filled with delight, where there will be no more sickness, no more death, no more sin, where we will live in harmony with all of God’s people and in harmony with our Lord perfectly—fully walking with the Lord Jesus Christ, filled with all of his love, all of his joy, all of his peace.
That reward is so much better—so much superior—than any cost. Friends, we have this reward that comes by faith because of the new covenant that the Lord Jesus Christ has given to us—one that’s not based on works, but is a covenant secured by the blood of Jesus, where his righteousness is counted as the righteousness of his people for all eternity.
I say it again, Church: Yes, there is a cost to live by faith. But we must trust; we must believe; we must have faith that the reward is so much better.
Church, may we live out our lives pursuing that great reward.
Let’s pray.
Lord, thank you for Jesus. Thank you that Jesus lived a life that we could never live, only to die in our place and rise again on the third day. We thank you that it’s not by works—it’s not the standard; it’s not our hope for righteousness. It is by faith.
Lord, please help us to live by faith in Jesus Christ. I pray for those here who have yet to believe—yet to put their faith in Christ. Lord, in this moment, I pray that you would open up their eyes, that they would see and believe in Jesus—that they would believe and see that indeed he is the great reward worth leaving all things behind in order to have.
Lord, for the rest of us, please help us to live by faith—to pay whatever cost that may be before us. Help us also to trust and believe that the reward is greater.
I praise all in Jesus’ name. Amen.