Hebrews – Part 8 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Praise the Lord, friends, I’m so glad that you tuned in today. We’re gonna talk about what faith looks like today. And we’re gonna be in Hebrews chapter 11. You don’t want to miss this broadcast. You see, I believe that God wants to bless you so much he makes you an advertisement of how he treats his kids. So stay tuned and receive the good word of God today. Blessings. Friends, I’m so glad you’re here, so glad you’re with us. We’re gonna be sharing today from Hebrews chapter 11. And I am so excited about this broadcast. You know, there’s a lot of things that have been said about faith. In fact, if you ask most people that have been in church very long a definition of faith, they will define faith by saying, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” And that is not a definition of faith. You say, pastor, that came right outta the scripture. Yeah, that’s Hebrew chapter 11, verse one. “Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” That’s actually talking about how faith is manifested or how faith is revealed. But a definition of faith is trust or assurance, confidence. That’s a definition of faith. Because we have a relationship with God, because we know God. People of faith are people who know God. We have trust, we have assurance, we have confidence. When you know people who really know God, they are people of great confidence. Andrew Wommack has great confidence. Jesse Duplantis has great confidence. Mark Hankins has great confidence. And it’s because they know God. They’re people of faith. But faith, you know, their faith is manifested, their faith has substance, their faith is evidence of a God that you cannot see. Physically you can look at people of faith and things they say and do, and you’ll say, that’s a man of faith. Praise God, that’s a woman of faith. Praise God, and that’s what Hebrews 11 is talking about. He’s talking about all these different Old Testament characters and how they were looking forward to Christ. But here’s how their faith was manifested.

 

  And a person of faith is gonna stand out in a generation where people don’t have faith. You know, Noah stood out. You know, Jesus said, he actually gave two examples of what it would look like in the end times. He said, it’ll be like as in the days of Noah, right? So in the days of Noah, Noah was a person of faith and he stood out. He also said, it’s gonna be like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. You know, Abraham stood out in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, he stood out, right? And, you know, we’re living in the times where it’s like the days of Noah, where it’s like the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. So people of faith are gonna stand out. You’re not gonna fit in. You’re gonna be a little bit peculiar to the average person in the world. And we need to be people of faith. We need to shine our light. Our lives should be pointing people to Jesus. Our lives should really demonstrate the gospel of Jesus. It should demonstrate God’s goodness.

 

  Amen, they should. So let’s look at this, Hebrew chapter 11. Again, verse one says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” What this means to me is our lives, when we live by faith, have substance of a God that we hope in. And our lives are the evidence to the world of a God that you cannot see. Praise God. So when we look at this, he says, “By it, the elders obtain a good report.” You know, a good report is obtained by faith. If you are a person of faith, you have a good report before God. Aaron, you got a thing about your report card. You can talk a little bit about that. You know that we have a report card and we get the report card of Jesus.

 

  Amen. Yeah, that’s true. Yeah, when you put your trust in Jesus, your old report card, your old everything you’ve done wrong, everything you think you’ve done right, it’s really done away with. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us. But you’re not just, when you put your trust in Jesus, you don’t just get the old report card taken away. You’re given a new report card. You’re given the report card of Jesus. So his joy is your joy. His righteousness is now your righteousness. His peace is now your peace. His victory is your victory.

 

  Amen. He goes on to say this in verse three, “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.” Man, by faith we understand. You don’t have to explain to me all the scientific reasons that the heaven and earth were created by God. I just believe the Word, “In the beginning, God created the heaven and earth.” But there’s another thing we see here, through faith, we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God. And so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. God took his word and created everything. But his word is like the framework that he hangs the world on, praise God. And we can have a picture. When you really live by faith, you get a picture on the inside of what God wants to do, praise God. And when that picture on the inside of you gets bigger than the picture on the outside, the picture on the outside will change and come to look like the picture on the inside of you. And so God had a picture on the inside. The Holy Spirit brooded over the face of the deep. And I believe the Holy Spirit came up with a plan, and then God spoke that into existence. And so our words become the framework where God paints his picture. Amen? Hallelujah. And God paints his picture first in your heart. And you get that picture in your heart and your life will come to look like the picture on the inside of you, praise God. And so he says this, “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God, testifying of his gifts. And by it being dead, he speaks.” Man, Abel speaks to us, amen? And his gifts, his giving speaks to us. Praise God, he still speaks. Praise God, his gifts went beyond his generation. They speak to us. Now, we read on down. “By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God translated him. Because before his translation, he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” You know, Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam. And if you study the genealogies in the book of Genesis, you can find out that when Enoch was a little boy, Adam was still alive. And I believe Adam talked about how he missed God and he regretted that he sinned in the garden. Well, if Adam hadn’t have sinned, somebody else would’ve. But Enoch, I think, desired, as he heard his great-great-great-great, however many great grandfathers it was, speaking of how he walked with God in the garden in the cool of the day. I believe Enoch desired that. And by faith he walked with God and they did not find him. Praise God, Enoch was the seventh from Adam. Enoch actually had such a relationship with God that he named his son Methuselah. Methuselah means, at his death, the deluge comes. And the Bible actually talks about this in the book of Jude, that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied the Lord comes with 10,000 of his saints, Enoch saw the end times. Enoch saw amazing things. But when you study that out again and study those genealogies out, that the year that Methuselah died, Noah’s flood came. And Methuselah lived to be 969 years old, the oldest man that ever lived on the planet, praise God. But Enoch had this picture of that and prophesied of it. But he had a testimony that he pleased God before he went home to be with the Lord. And he just walked on with God. It says in verse six, “Without faith, it’s impossible to please God.” You know, sometimes people get mad at me for being a faith preacher or a grace preacher. And I’m both a word of faith preacher and a word of grace preacher. You know, the Bible says in Romans 10, “It’s the word of faith that we preach, that if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.” Well, what are you preaching, the word of doubt and unbelief? I actually talked to some people that used to come to this church and they go to another good church in the community now. But before that they were going to this one church and the person got up who’s the pastor, and said, now I want you to know that we are not a word of faith church. And they said, we don’t believe in that. And they just told the pastor that they taught, what I teach and what Andrew Robin teaches. And so the pastor got up from the pulpit and had a big old fit and then they quit the church. Anyway, went over to another good church. But you know, as you look at this, without faith, it’s impossible to please God. It takes faith to please God. Faith pleases God. God loves it when we live by faith. And so he says, “For he who comes to God, we must believe both the message says that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.” If you really have faith, you’re gonna seek God because you believe that he is and he’s good. He’s a good God. Praise God. “By faith, Noah,” Aaron, you were just talking about Noah, “Being warned of God of things not seen, as yet moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house. Built an ark by which he condemned the world and became the heir of righteousness, which is by faith.” Man, Noah, the Bible says he was a preacher of righteousness. It took him like 100 years to build the ark, him and his three sons and their families. He was 500 years old when God spoke to him, and he was 600 years old when he entered into the ark. It took him 100 years to build the ark. Amazing, he didn’t have the power tools, he didn’t have the things that we do. And you know, he heard God. God spoke to him exactly what he wanted. And it was amazing that he had that kind of a relationship with God, and you know, all the things that he did. But you can you imagine being mocked for 100 years, building this ark, people laughing at you, people scorning you, people thinking that you’re crazy and all these different things? And yet he just kept building. He had such a relationship with God. Faith really is talking about having a relationship with God. People of faith to have a relationship with God. There are people that know God. Praise God. And so you don’t have to look like the rest of the world, you stand out. And Noah was one of these people. He goes on and says this, “By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out in the place which he said afterward received for an inheritance, obeyed. And he went out, not looking where he went.” Abraham moved into the promised land. He moved into Canaan. “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tents.” Do you know Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees? Ur of the Chaldees, at that time, if the historians are correct, they had, you know, underground, they had running water, they had underground sewage, they had all these amazing developments. And Abraham left that to live in a tent and go into the land of Canaan. And it says he lived in tents with the Isaac and Jacob, his heirs with him of the same promise, for he looked for a city whose foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith, Sarah, it says by faith, by faith, by faith. And it gets to Sarah, it says, through faith. Sarah receives strength to conceive seed. Do you know, sometimes you need to receive strength as a believer to conceive the seed of the word of God, of the promise of God? “And was delivered of child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful.” You see, faith is really confidence in God’s faithfulness. Trust in God’s faithfulness. “She judged him faithful that promised. Therefore, sprang the one, him as good as dead, even so many of the stars.” Abraham was 100, Sarah was 90 when Isaac was born. “The stars of the sky, multitude in the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.” Again, God wants to work with that picture. And he showed him the heavens later and said, your seed’s gonna be like the stars. Your seed’s gonna, he used something tangible to relate a spiritual reality to him. “For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly,” look at verse 15 and we’ll end right here before we take a short break. “Truly, if they’d been mindful of that country where they came out, they might have had opportunity to have return.” You know, some people talking about the good old days and just talking about how good it was when they were serving the devil, or how good it was before they went to do, I’m telling you, the good days are right now, right here, serving God, doing what God called you to do, being what God wants you to be, going where God wants you to go, saying what God wants you to say, having what God wants you to have. The good times are right here and right now, not serving the devil, praise God. So we’re gonna be right back and we’re gonna continue to talk about how faith looks. You could see these people of faith, but not only that, you could hear ’em. And we’ll talk about that right after the break. Hi friends, I’m so glad that you’re watching today. I have my son Aaron with me, and we’re teaching on the book of Hebrews. This is one of my favorite books of the Bible. And we have some great teaching available on our website, CharisChristianCenter.com. It’s free of charge, downloadable, “Hebrews, The Better Covenant”, “Hebrews, Jesus Makes Everything Better”. And my book also, “Hebrews, The Better Covenant”.

 

  So Pastor Lawson and the Pastor Aaron’s teaching on faith and who we are. So the foundation has been so solid since we are here. So it’s been growing steadily, the foundation in Jesus. And on top of that skillset, increasing by serving with joy is the best thing you can do.

 

  Praise the Lord, friends, we’ve been talking about faith and how faith looks. And you could see faith in Abel’s offering. You could see faith when Enoch walked with God. You could see faith with Noah building an ark. You could see faith with Abraham looking for a city. You could see faith with Sarah receiving strength to conceive a child in her old age. But not only could you see faith, you could hear faith. And we’re gonna talk about that. And so he says this in verse 16, “But now they desire a better country.” It’s talking about Abraham and Sarah. “A heaven wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he prepared for them a city. By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac.” This is amazing. This is when God confirmed the promise to Abraham in Genesis 22. Most people believe that this is, Abraham was about 125, if you go by “Thompson’s Chain Reference”, when he did this. And this was the confirmation of the promise. Abraham had a lifestyle of faith. I call it 50 years of faith in God. And he had received the promises, offered up his son of whom it was said that Isaac, in Isaac, your seed will be called, Isaac represented everything, that Abraham had believed God prior to that time and he was willing to lay it all on the line because he had so much confidence in God. And he said he accounted that God was able to raise him from the dead and that he received him in a figure. Isaac was a type of Christ. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning, now, Isaac spoke a blessing. We can see faith by what people do and what they say. If you’re a person of faith, it’s gonna be revealed in what you do and what you say. “And by faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both of the sons of Joseph in worship, leaning on the top of his staff. By faith, Joseph, when he died made mention of the departing of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones.” Do you know it’s something like 360 years later after that Joseph died, that they went into the promised land? But Joseph gave commandment concerning his bones. Aaron, go ahead and jump in. Talk about Moses here a little bit.

 

  So verse 23 says, “By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king’s command.” You know, faith is really an opposite of fear. Fear is like believing something in the wrong direction. So they didn’t cave to fear, they didn’t cave to this ungodly command of the king. I’m glad that our church didn’t cave to a lot of ungodly commands of ruling officials during COVID. I’m really glad that there were a few good pastors here in Colorado Springs that stood up and said, you know, we’re gonna have church. And you know, it’s not fair that the bars are open, the pot shops are open, you know, Walmart’s open, and churches have to be closed. And there wasn’t any plan to open the churches. So there are a few good men. A few. There weren’t many. But I’m glad that, you know, Pastor Lawson was one of those people who just didn’t cave to fear and didn’t cave to ungodly commands. And thank God that we have people like that who stand up for what’s right and stand up for our freedoms. So this verse 24, “By faith, Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” You know, faith will actually affect your identity. He didn’t wanna identify with the house of Pharaoh. He wanted to identify with the people of God. It said, so much so that in verse 25, “He chose to rather suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ’s greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward.” By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. For he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith, he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.” So man, Moses was a great person of faith. He wrote down the law, and you know, he actually rejoiced to see Jesus’ day. He looked forward to it. And when Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, Moses was there. The law points to Jesus.

 

  The law points to Jesus. Moses and Elijah and the law and the prophets both point to Jesus. You know, the Bible actually says in Galatians chapter three that the law was our school master to bring us to Christ. So we graduate from law school to live the good life when we come into Christ. But it says this in the book of Peter, it says, “The angels desire to look into what we have and the prophets prophesied of the grace that’s to come.” So when Jesus was transfigured and there appeared within, Peter, and James and John were all there, but Moses and Elijah appeared to them. It wasn’t, and Peter said, let’s build three tabernacles. He said, no, this God spoke from heaven said, this is my beloved son, hear ye him. It’s not about the law, it’s not about the prophets. The law pointed to Jesus, the prophets prophesied of the grace to come in Jesus. The gospel is about Jesus. And what he’s saying is all these were types and shadows. And really Hebrews 11 says the same thing, that all these things look forward to what we have in Christ. He says this in verse 39 and 40, “All these people of faith obtained a good report through faith, but they did not receive the promise.” You see, the promise is Christ. Amen? “God having provided something better for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” We talked about yesterday that we are perfect in Christ Jesus. And it’s the blood of Jesus that made us perfect. If you don’t believe that, read Hebrews chapter nine and verse 14. That’s talking about your spiritual condition as a born again believer. And that is the gospel truth. And a lot of people just don’t know that. But what he’s saying is Jesus is the one who finished it, he completed it, he perfected the deal. And we have received the Spirit of God on the inside of us. So we’re perfect on the inside. Now go on Aaron, and keep reading.

 

  Verse 29 says, “By faith they pass through the Red Sea as by dry land. Whereas the Egyptians attempting to do so were drowned.” This is the only time in Hebrews 11 where you see someone attempted to do something. Faith doesn’t just make attempts. Faith is a full assurance. It doesn’t just try something out.

 

  Amen, now, when you look at this–

 

  Faith makes a decision, it makes a commitment.

 

  Yeah, it does. And Moses, man, you look at this, all these things. Moses’ parents were not afraid. Moses refused. Moses chose. Moses is, it’s because he esteemed the right things. He did not fear the wrath of the king because he saw God who was invisible. He kept the Passover, he did all this. The Egyptians talked about it. You know what, God can use the same thing to deliver you and destroy your enemies, hallelujah. So you need to keep listening to God and keep your relationship with God right. Go ahead.

 

  Verse 30 says, “By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. By faith, the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace.

 

  I love that, by faith, the harlot Rahab. That just, that makes a statement.

 

  Faith is available to everyone. It’s available to men, to women, to Jews, to Gentiles, to every race, every economic status. It’s available to kings and queens and shepherds. Faith is available to everyone.

 

  Faith will work for anybody, anywhere. Amen, praise God. Go ahead.

 

  Verse 32 says, “And what more shall I say, for the time would fail me if I tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.

 

  Stop right there. Now why do some people receive things and other people go on to be with the Lord? It’s what they believe. Women receive their dead raised to life again. We have a man in our church that was raised from the dead. His name is Herb Carter. When he died, it happened in between services here. I prayed for him, we had a group of people gathered around praying for him. But his wife, Judith, was right there. She’s a nurse. She took his, you know, pulse. She realized what had happened. And God spoke to her and said, do you want him back? You better live right, man. Your wife might say, no, just let him go. But Judith said, no, I want him, praise God. And Herb came back from the dead. We have another man here that had his heart stopped seven times on the table. Praise God. And his wife, her name is Gina. It’s Jim Wall and Gina. And Gina prayed for him, praise God. And there were a bunch of believers with them and they prayed for him. And you know what? God raised him up. His heart stopped seven times. But there’s a group of believers believing, and his wife. Women received their dead, that’s happened in our church to two people that I know of, to two women. Others were tortured because they did not accept deliverance. Sometimes people just choose to go home and beat the Lord. Others had a trial of cruel mockings and scourgings. Moreover, bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, sawn asunder, tempted, slain with the sword, wandered about in sheepskins, goatskins, being destitute and afflicted and tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts, mountains, dens, caves of the earth. All these have obtained,” faith obtains a good report, right back where we started in Hebrews chapter 11. “Received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us.” Glory to God, we have a better covenant established on better promises. And what made it better is Jesus, praise God, that they without us should not be made perfect or complete. Jesus completed the deal. We are perfect in Christ Jesus. Amen. So faith responds to the grace of God. Amen, and when you understand grace, what you do is you begin to say some things, you begin to do some things. And that’s how these people live by faith. And your life looks different because you are believing God.

 

  I like earlier in the broadcast you said that faith, you know, it’s just not, a definition of faith isn’t the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things, that’s describing what faith looks like. But faith really is trusting in Jesus, it’s trusting in God, it’s having a relationship with God. If people don’t have a real heartfelt relationship with God, if they don’t really know God, they’re not gonna be able to put faith. They’re not gonna be able to trust someone they don’t know.

 

  Right, you gotta know God. And you know, when we’re talking about salvation and knowing God, we’re not talking about having your ticket stamped. And there are a lot of people that have maybe made a confession of Jesus, but they don’t have a real heart relationship. And you need a real heart relationship with God where you know him. And if you’re like that today, I want to encourage you to call in and pray with my prayer ministers today and receive the good things of God. I want you to remember how much God loves you. We appreciate you. We’ve got literally hundreds of hours of teaching, free materials on our website at CharisChristianCenter.com. And I wanna say a great big thank you to our partners who make all of this available. Thank you and God bless you. If you wanna partner, if you want a prayer, just give us a call.

 

  In the Hebrews package, which includes “Hebrews, The Better Covenant” and “Hebrews, Jesus Changes Everything”, you’ll learn how the new covenant is better than the old simply because of Jesus. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of each teaching, a $70 value, free of charge. You can also order the book, “Hebrews, The Better Covenant” for $9.99. Download your free teachings and purchase the book today at CharisChristianCenter.com.

 

  Hey everyone, my good friend Jesse Duplantis is gonna be here Sunday, November 5th at 6:30 PM at Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs. You don’t wanna miss it.

 

  You let God do what he wants and he’ll bless you beyond your wildest dreams, spiritually, physically, and financially.

 

  Come be encouraged with the Word of God and brother Jesse Duplantis, Sunday, November 5th at Charis Christian Center.

 

  Thanks for watching “Grace for Today”. This broadcast has been made possible by our faithful partners. If you would like to become a partner, need prayer, or have a question, please call us at 719-418-4000. Or to partner online, go to CharisChristianCenter.com/give. You can write us at PO Box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80962. See you next time on “Grace for Today”.