REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE SUNDAY 10 MAY 2015 EVENING SERVICE.

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1 REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE SUNDAY 10 MAY 2015 EVENING SERVICE. Sing beforehand: Psalm 139:7, 8 Let us commence this meeting with God by declaring openly to one another and to God: Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Beloved, grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. By the powerful operation of God the Holy Spirit. Song of praise: Psalm 68:9, 15, 16. Prayer Doxology: Worship: Confession: Supplication (for pardon of sins): Thanksgiving: Intercession (for the need of the congregation, the church, authorities, sinful world and appeal to the promises of God) General supplication: Illumination of the Holy Spirit (necessary for the ministry of the Word): Scripture Versification 11-3:3, 9, 10 Scripture reading: Hebrews 11:1-19 Scripture text: Hebrews 11: By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude-innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. (Hebrews 11:8-12) Theme: Faith persevering in the everyday life Beloved congregation of Christ, should somebody call out that there is a bomb in the building, everybody inside will see to vacating the premises as soon as possible. Although they have not seen the bomb themselves, they will not wait until the police arrive and first search the building in order to either confirm or deny the presence of a bomb. They will vacate the building because everybody knows that bombs destroy human life. The fear of death is one of the things installing speed into human limbs. Indeed Noah received a warning from the Lord. Due to the sins of the entire mankind the Lord decided to eradicates all life by means of a flood, but Noah had to build an ark. Although Noah has never seen a flood he knew exactly what eradicating meant. He did not first wait to see what a flood looks like. Through the faith Noah readied the ark like the Lord instructed him. 1

2 The next believer from the olden times that the Holy Spirit sets us as an example of continual faith to the Jewish is Abraham. In fact it is no surprise that Abraham also attained a place in the gallery of believers. He is indeed called the father of the believers. And the Jews liked to boast that the descended from Abraham and indeed this book was indeed written for a congregation consisting out of Jewish Christians. But when it comes to Abraham as a persevering believer, it is so much different to Noah. Abraham did not receive a warring about a catastrophe hitting Ur and therefore him having to move out of Ur. The Lord only called Abraham out of his land and the house of his father. Humanly put there was nothing giving Abraham a message that he must listen to the calling voice of the Lord. There was no threatening danger. Indeed, to Abraham in Ur and later in Haran, life was normal and smooth. How did it then come to Abraham moving away from the safety and known surroundings and away from the life of comfort and prosperity to the unknown? Brothers, sisters and children, from this description of Abraham s life as believer together with God the Holy Spirit points out to us three matters characteristic to a persevering faith in everyday life. The three times the Holy Spirit starts with the words by faith are three markers in our text of Scripture helping us to discover what perseverance in the faith means. The first lesson we hear in verse 8: By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8) In Genesis 12:1-3 we hear God telling Abraham to move from his land, the house of his father and his family to a land the Lord would show him. In Genesis 12:4 we read about the reaction of Abraham. Abraham moved away as instructed by the Lord. God called and Abraham obeyed. Prior to the Lord calling Abraham he lived in Ur of the Chaldeans. At that stage he did not yet serve the Lord although his predecessors included people like Enoch and Noah. But we now know that the Flood did not remove the sin from earth. The Flood only removed the sinners. The sin still had a foothold in the hearts of people the people who were saved on the ark. And their descendants again degenerated, so badly that even Abraham himself served idols. (Joshua 24:2) And Abraham aged in idolatry. He was seventy-five when the Lord called him. We do not know in which way the Lord called Abraham. Only by mouth of Stephen we know that the glory of the Lord appeared to Abraham before he moved to the land of Haran. (Acts 7:2) Thus Abraham came to faith in the only God of heaven and earth in Ur. From Ur he moved to Haran for whatsoever reason. And it was there in Haran where the Lord called Abraham as we read in Genesis 12. The point the Holy Spirit is making here is that Abraham did not decide by himself to move to Canaan. He was not following some kind of dream of discovering other places. He moved together with his father and his entire family from Ur to Haran. During those times in which the people again drifted away from God and there were only a few servants of the living God, you did not move about alone. But should the Lord call, then it was a completely different matter. Abraham s move to Haran in Canaan occurred as an answer to the calling of the Lord. Calvin noted about this obedience of Abraham that the wordily fathers did not do anything unless the Lord commanded them to do so. This at least is the distinguishing sign of persevering faith. We do not move a single yard unless the Word of the Lord does not indicate the direction. The Word is the lamp removing the darkness so that we can see where the Lord wants us to move. Persevering faith does not rest upon the stories of man, but upon the revealed Word of the Lord. 2

3 Now we come to the crux in verse 8. Abraham obeyed the Lord through the faith. True faith always obeys the Lord. We are indeed only saved from eternal damnation through the faith in Christ and His perfect work. But true faith does not remain alone. True faith in Christ culminates in obedience to the Lord. The faith of somebody who just confesses that he believes in Christ, but you cannot see that he also obeys the Lord, is merely words and superficial. This is what Jesus warned the Jews against. They claimed to be children of Abraham. They thus claimed to believe in God. But were they truly children of Abraham truly believed in God they would have done the works of Abraham, says the Jesus. (John 8:39). "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. (Hebrews 7: 21) Through the faith Abraham obeyed the Lord. He moved away from everything and everybody known to him and away from a comfortable life where everything was in place to a land the Lord would show him. Abraham did not know where he would land up. He did not have Google Streetview. He abandoned everything to go together with Sarah, Lot and his slaves and possessions to the land he would obtain as inheritance. Obedience In the faith means that you abandon everything wanting to separate you from the Lord Jesus when He commands you to follow Him. We read about the disciples who were called by the Lord and abandoned all they had in aid of following Him. This is what Jesus also stresses when He says: Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. (Lucas 9:23) Nothing and nobody may stand between our Saviour and us. Whether it be relationships with people we love and care for or our possessions, everything must be subservient to our obedience to the Lord He is indeed our King and our Lord. He redeemed us with His precious blood not with gold and silver. He gave everything to save people from the power of the sin. Everyone who is thus convinced and confesses that Christ also saved him stand under the obligation of fully obeying Him. The worldly man will say that this is a risky business. How can you subject everything to the obedience of the God you have never even seen? To such a person we can say with conviction: Friend, wanting to rule and control your own life poses risks. You do not have all knowledge and even less do you possess all power. God, on the other hand, is all knowing and He is omnipotent. And for the sakes of His Son Christ He lets everything work for the people who love Him. Therefore the believer can with trust dedicate his life to the Lord and obey Him totally. Even should the destination be totally unknown as it was for Abraham, you and obey the Lord because He is omnipresent, all knowing and omnipotent. The second lesson we find in verse 9 and 10: 9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews11: 9-10) Beloved, is it not noticeable, Abraham went to the place he would obtain as inheritance- the Promised Land but Abraham never possessed even a square meter of that land as inheritance. All he owned was the cave of Machpelah he bought as burial ground from the Hittites and he paid the full purchase price thereof. 3

4 For his entire life of about a hundred years in the Promised Land Abraham lived as an alien in tents in an alien land. What a contrast there is between Abraham and Lot. Abraham lives as an alien in the Promised Land whilst Lot took up residence in a house in Sodom. Lot is a believer but he had himself tainted by the evil values of Sodom. Abraham, on the other hand, also got to deal with the people of the land, but he always remained separate from the heathens. True believers in this world are only sojourners and pilgrims. (1 Peter 2:22). Although Jesus makes the promise in the service on the mount that the meek are blessed because they will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5) those who are saved by Christ can be ready to experience it differently in this life. In this world the followers of Christ will be hated. They will be subjected to all sorts of cruelties of the non-believers. Everything will appear so controversial. Therefore the persevering believer must adopt the lifestyle of an alien. When you travel in a strange land you will always stand out as somebody completely different. You look different, speak differently, and do differently to the people of the land. Yes you could learn a few customs so that you are not rude towards the people of the land, but you will never become part as one of the land. For as long as we live in this world, we Christians will be strangers to the world. We are only pilgrims on this present earth, because we follow the Lord Jesus who will bring us into His kingdom our real fatherland on the new earth. Therefore our dealings with the matters of this world will always be different than the peoples of this world. We also think differently about work and possessions than the peoples of this world, because they think that this life on this earth as it appears now still, is all that there is. We, on the other hand, know that life continues after death. And for the followers of Jesus Christ who obey Him there is an eternal inheritance the New Earth. Therefore it is not necessary to become rooted in this world. But when you become one with the world, as it happened to Lot, it is difficult and possibly impossible to persevere in the faith. Abraham expected the city having foundations the city built by and erected by God. Abraham did not look how this city looked like. We have the advantage of having heard the description of the city from the mouth of our Lord Jesus. In Revelation 21 the New Jerusalem is described to us. It is a city grounded upon the ministering of the apostles and Jesus Christ Himself is the cornerstone thereof, because only the people inhabiting the city shaped their lives upon the perfect Person and work of Christ. Persevering faith is thus faith obeying the Lord, no matter how good and comfortable life is now for us. And persevering faith lets you live like a stranger and pilgrim on this earth. The third lesson: 11 By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude-innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. (Hebrews 11:11-12) Sarah foresaw no ways in which she could become pregnant. When she already was around ninety years old her entire life barren and past the lifetime to bear children - the Lord made His promise that she give birth to a son after a year. When she heard this she laughed at the Lord. To herself she thought that the Man who told Abraham that she would bear a son certainly did not know the workings of a woman s body. The Lord admonished Sarah because she was blinded by problems, which to her as a human, seemed impossible to overcome. Little did she realise that the Man who spoke was indeed the 4

5 Creator and Designer of the womanly body. He, as the omnipotent God, can unlock what He locked originally. The Holy Spirit used the words of the Lord to Sarah and Abraham s persevering faith in the almighty God so that Sarah could also could come to the conviction that the Lord is in fact true. Keep in mind that Sarah did not become pregnant like Mary. She fell pregnant in the normal way. She shoed her faith in the Lord by doing what was expected from her to become pregnant from Abraham. Abraham and Sarah s perseverance in the faith bore fruit. In their age they received a son. But the full promised fruit to their obedient faith in the Lord the never saw themselves. Abraham only saw two of his grandsons with Isaac. But those descendants as many as the stars in the heavens he did not see in this life. To persevere in the faith does not mean that we will experience already in this life, all the blessings promised by the Lord. He promised health and power, but these are not blessings meant for all the believers in this life. It is only in the life hereafter that all believers will never experience disease and weaknesses. Although Abraham and Sarah themselves did dot see the fulfilment of the Lord s promise in their lives, the Jewish Christians for whom this book was written are our witnesses that the promise of the Lord indeed became true. There is not a continent on this earth where there are no Jews. But now we also know that this promise of the Lord about the descendants is not only relevant to the natural descendants. It is especially the spiritual descendants the Lord referred to. There is not one land in the world where there is not a true child of the Lord because the Lord is true and keeps to His Word. He already had John to see that the believers are innumerable in numbers. Therefore we need not give up in despair ministering the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Should it then happen that there are people hearing the gospel from our mouths and only a few come to faith, but the majority turn their backs towards the Lord, do not stop. Should those who have come to faith again fall back to the old sinful ways, do not give up. The fruit of the faith in Jesus Christ as the only Saviour is not for us to seek and to nurture. The Lord Himself will bring those fruits forward. Our responsibility is to faithfully persevere in the service work given to us by the Lord. To then persevere in the faith we must listen to the Word of the Lord and obey what he commands us. A persevering believer is not a creature of this world, but only a stranger and pilgrim travelling through on the way to his actual fatherland. To persevere in the faith you must not be blinded by that which you cannot achieve, but look forward to what God can achieve to glorify Himself. Amen! Closing prayer Closing song Scripture Versification 18-7:4, 12 The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. Rev Coen Vrey Reformed Church Bellville 10 May 2015 Scripture: New King James. Translator: Fred Scheepers 5