Join host Steve Schwetz and teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee on an enlightening journey through Hebrews 11, where the essence and power of faith are laid bare. Discover why faith is not just a mere belief but the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Listen to inspiring faith testimonies from listeners around the world and delve deep into Dr. McGee’s compelling explanations of the heroes of faith and their unwavering belief in God’s word.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, the book of Hebrews poses quite a riddle. It says faith can’t be seen, yet it’s impossible to please God without it. Faith is also the only way that we can come to God. Welcome to Through the Bible. I’m Steve Schwetz, your host and fellow traveler here on the Bible Bus. Now, our teacher, of course, is Dr. J. Vernon McGee, and he’s going to be exploring that riddle in our study of Hebrews 11. You know, Dr. McGee says many people think faith is a leap in the dark and it’s an uncertainty or it’s, you know, some sort of gamble. But in reality, he says faith isn’t invisible. But as Hebrews 11 tells us, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith rests on what God says. Well, if that doesn’t quite make sense yet, then stay with us because Dr. McGee is going to explain it all. Are you ready? Well, hop aboard the Bible bus and I want to share a few letters that celebrate the faith journeys of just a few fellow passengers. First, we hear from a listener in Tamil Nadu, India. Greetings, he begins. I do gardening work and I also take care of cattle and sheep. We used to go to church, but it was recently closed down and we were left like sheep without shepherds. But by the grace of God, we were listening to the word of God taught by you. This program in our own language is a great blessing to our family. Our faith is deepening and we are learning about what it means to walk with God. Next, we’ve got an email. This one’s from South Korea. I learned I needed to repent of my own life. which was filled with complaints and dissatisfaction. I earnestly desire to live a life filled with gratitude and praise. I ask you to pray that I have opportunity to spread the gospel. Thank you so much. Wasn’t that a great note? Now here’s another one. This is from Diego in Bolivia. I have been listening to you for a year, Diego writes, and I have decided to follow Jesus Christ and live for him. Please send me your notes and outlines to better understand the teachings that I hear every morning before going into work. You know, Diego makes a good point. Dr. McGee’s notes and outlines really do help us as we study God’s Word. So I’ve got to ask you the question, have you downloaded yours? You’ll find them in our app or visit ttb.org and just click on Briefing the Bible. It’s really a terrific little, actually not so little, digital book that contains all of Dr. McGee’s notes and outlines for our entire five-year study of Through the Bible. And best of all, it’s free. Now, if you’d like to receive an abridged paperback copy that we would send to you by mail, just call us 1-800-65-BIBLE is the number, or write to us at Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C, 6B1. Our last letter comes from RJ in California. He writes… I’ve listened to Pastor McGee’s sermons on and off for many years, more so now than ever before. I consider him a loving spiritual father because his sermons have always been a source of strength and comfort to me. Even at times when I find myself struggling with my old decrepit sinful nature, he takes me back to God’s word where I find I am refreshed and encouraged to remain steadfast in my faith in Jesus Christ. We’ll be right back. Well, thanks, R.J. It’s great to hear from you. Let’s pray as we come now to the study. Heavenly Father, as R.J. said, thank you that in your word we find refreshment and encouragement, and we’re also grateful that we can find strength. We pray that you would strengthen the faith of everyone listening. If there are some who have not yet committed their lives to you, Lord, speak to them now and draw them close. In Jesus’ name, amen. We’re off to Hebrews 11 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, friends, as we come to this 11th chapter of Hebrews, it’s a very wonderful chapter. A great many call it the catalog of the heroes of faith. Well, very frankly, I like to look at it from the viewpoint of faith. It’s what faith has done in the lives of men and women in all ages, under all circumstances, from the very gate of the Garden of Eden down to the very present moment. This is a chapter that illustrates to you and me, and they’re witnesses that encourage us to live by faith. Now, it’s so easy. to even make the Christian life a series of rules. One of the reasons that so many people like to get under the Sermon on the Mount or the Ten Commandments is because men love rules and regulation, and they think it’s easy to obey rules. It seems simple. I’ll be very frank with you. When I go to a new place and I’m driving, I always ask the party to tell me how to get there. And they generally ride it out. You turn here left and you go so many blocks and you turn right. I like it like that because it’s easy to follow. Life is like that for a great many folk. But now we’re going to find that these people who went by faith went a different route altogether. And that’s the way God actually wants us to go today. Unbelief, we’re going to see is probably, as we’ve already seen for that matter, the worst sin that anyone can commit. God has a remedy for every sin, but the state of unbelief Now, that doesn’t mean there is an unpardonable sin. There’s no act you could do today that God wouldn’t forgive you tomorrow. But if you’re in a state of unbelief today and in a state of unbelief tomorrow, God has no remedy for that, of course, at all. I want to come now to the fourth verse of this chapter, and I’ll have another word to say about verse 3 here. We dealt with it somewhat last time. But I want to give a quotation now from Dr. G. Campbell Morgan as he concludes chapter 10 that’s fitting as we come to these individuals. He says, life is to be mastered by faith and not by doubt. It is to be forevermore illuminated by hope and not darkened by despair. And in its activity, love is to be practiced in fellowship. We’re going to see that illustrated now as we come. Faith is not some jewel. that you put in a case like a diamond and look at it. That’s not the way it’s given to us here. That’s the reason I don’t want to call it a catalog of heroes of faith. These are men and women that got right down to the nitty-gritty alive, and faith was operative in their lives. And faith is not something, therefore, that you put in a case. Faith rests upon the Word of God. And he says here in verse 3, through faith we understand that the worlds were framed. Actually, the ages were set up by the Word of God. And the Word of God, we’ve already been told, is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. The Word of God is more powerful than an atom bomb or a hydrogen bomb. Someone has said that atom bombs come in three sizes, big and bigger. And then where is everybody? Well, the Word of God is more potent than that, my friend. Because the Word of God has the power to transform life. And when you and I come to the Word of God, we find out that either you accept God’s statement concerning the origin. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That’s revelation. Either you believe God or you go by speculation. Now, don’t tell me today that Evolution is scientific. It’s not. If it were, then all the scientists would be in agreement. They’re not in agreement. And today, many of the outstanding scientists are beginning to let go this worship of evolution. They see so many fallacies in it, and they’re moving away from it. Now, you either believe God, and that’s revelation, Or you believe speculation. You see, faith must be anchored in something. I heard this whimsical story about the guard that was guide in a museum. And he was taking a group of people around and they came to a reconstructed dinosaur. You know, one bone and then they make up the rest of them. And there it was, a great big dinosaur. And so this guide says, this dinosaur is two million and six years old. Of course, the crowd looked at him in amazement. And one extrovert in the crowd, this fellow said, what do you mean two million and six years old? Where do you get the sick? Well, he says, when I came to work here six years ago, it was two million years old. Now it’s two million and six years old. Well, friends, that shows how utterly ridiculous all this dating that goes back millions of years can really become. Now, faith means you’ve got a solid basis for the origin of the universe. I won’t have to change my theory. It’s been in operation a long time. God created the heavens and the earth. Now, we come to individuals. And you have given here three individuals who lived before the flood. One even lived through it and on this side of it. You have, first of all, Abel. In Abel, you have the way of faith. And then Enoch. And you have the walk of faith. And then in Noah, you have the witness of faith. Now, these are the three men that lived before the flood. And faith was in operation at that time. These men walked by faith, lived by faith, saved by faith. With Abel, God put down once and for all the fact that men are going to approach him only on one basis, by faith, and that salvation will be by faith in Christ. Not only did Abraham see Christ’s day and rejoice, but so did Abel. We’re told here in verse 4, and I’m going to read it now. 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. All right, now I want to go back. to the book of Genesis, to the story of these two boys. And I want us to see just what it was that Abel had that Cain didn’t have, and what was the difference between these two boys. So let’s go back to the fourth chapter of the book of Genesis. And I read now, “…and Adam knew Eve his wife, And she conceived and bare Cain and said, I’ve gotten a man from the Lord. Well, what she really said was, I have gotten the man from the Lord. What man are we talking about? God made clear to Eve, that there would be coming one in her line, the seed of the woman. I’ll put enmity between thee and the woman, speaking to Satan, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head. And who’s it? Christ shall bruise thy head, thou shall bruise his heel.” Now we have that given to us, but Adam and Eve did not know the struggle with sin was going to last so long. They thought their first son would be the man that was coming, but he wasn’t. Cain was not the savior. He was a murderer. Verse 2, and she again bare his brother Abel, and Abel was a keeper of the sheep. But Cain was a tiller of the ground. Probably we ought to stop here and make a comparison of these two boys. Because there’s a whole Grand Canyon between these two. They’re antipodes apart. And yet they were brothers, the sons of Adam and Eve. Now, what was the difference between the two? The late Dr. Harry Rimmer thought they were twins. Well, I don’t think of them as twins, but I think they were more alike than twins could be. For instance, you could have a family today that’s born into the family, two boys. And one of the boys, he is a fine, upstanding boy. He goes through school, makes straight A’s. then to college, and then he becomes a professional man, a doctor maybe. And the other boy, though, he doesn’t do well in school, drops out of school. He’s a dropout, and he begins to drink and to smoke pot, and he is that type of a boy. So what’s the explanation? Two boys in the same family. And the psychologist comes along. Now, he says, according to the Mendelian theory, what you have here is one boy, this upstanding boy. He takes after an aunt on the mother’s side. And that’s the reason that he’s such a fine, upstanding boy. But the other boy takes after an uncle on the father’s side. And that’s the reason he’s drinking, because the father had a drinking uncle. And they explain it that way. But you can’t use that method about Cain and Abel. Who was the aunt and the uncle of Cain and Abel? They didn’t have something that many of us have, aunts and uncles. They didn’t have any aunts. They didn’t have any uncle. In fact, the matter is they didn’t have any grandparent. And you can’t use heredity for these two boys. I think they were alike as two peas. They just looked alike, acted alike in many ways. But they were different friends, very much different. And you can’t use that method of environment. Some use that as making the difference. And a great many people think that is the real difference among man is environment. If you just make it all right, everything will be fine because they feel today that if they could get rid of the slums and put people in nice homes, they’d be nice. But it doesn’t always work that way. Here, you find out that these two boys, they had the same environment. I can’t think of a home that was the same for both boys as the home of Cain and Abel. Now, notice what happens here. We have these two boys, and we’re told that now they come to God. And in process of time, Actually, it means at the end of days. I think of the Sabbath day. They belong to the first creation, the old creation. And in process of time, at the end of days, they came at a specified time that Cain brought And the word brought has in it the thought of to an appointed place of the fruit of the ground and offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstling 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 failed. Now, what is the difference between the two offerings then? Didn’t both of them come in obedience to God? No, they did not. You see, God had revealed to them that they were to bring a sacrifice, a little lamb. And that little lamb pointed to Christ. Somebody says, but Genesis doesn’t say that. No, it doesn’t say that. But the verse I read in the 11th chapter of Hebrews does say it. By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. How could he? Well, he came by faith. What is faith? Let’s look at it again. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. This man had a revelation from God. So did Cain. They’re both in the same family. But Cain ignored it, and he brought what he wanted to bring. The fruit of the ground, he had done it. In other words, here’s the first man who brought his works to God. A lot of people are still coming the same way, and they come by works. They do this and they do that. This man is bringing what he raised. But this other man brings a lamb and slays it. And had you been there and said to him, Brother Abel, Why are you bringing a lamb? He said, God commanded it. We just said to him, do you think the little lamb takes away your sin? And he would have said, of course not. Well, then why do you blame it? Well, he said, I just told you. God commanded us to bring it. What do you understand? Well, he says, God said to my mother that there’s one coming in her line that’s going to be a savior. And that one is the one this little lamb’s pointing to. And I’m coming by faith, looking to the time when a deliverer and a savior will come. So here at the very beginning, God made the way open to himself clear that without shedding of blood, there’s no remission of sins, that we come to God on one basis, that we’re sinners. And that the penalty for our sin must be paid. And that’s the reason the little lamb must be slain. The little lamb can’t take away. It looks in faith to the coming of Christ, who is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. So that Abel’s offering points to Christ. And he came by faith. This is the way of salvation that’s made clear to us. At the very beginning, God got this straightened out early, friends. And today, though a man be a stranger and a wayfaring man and a fool, he need not err therein. God’s made it very clear that Christ is the way to himself and that God gave him to die for our sins. And that makes this very important, you see. Now, we move on down in this 11th chapter of Hebrews to the next man. We’re not going to get very far with him, but let’s look at Enoch. And in him, you see the walk of faith. When you come to God through Christ, the way, then you are to walk. And it’s the walk of the believer that becomes important. By faith, Enoch, we’re told, was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. Now, Enoch pleased God, but how did he do it? By faith. And the writer here goes on to say, but without faith, it’s impossible to please him. Now, friends, unless you’re willing to come God’s way and believe him, you couldn’t possibly please God. Without faith, it’s impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he’s a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And this epistle is a great deal said about rewards. And the reason for that is the emphasis here is upon the Christian life in light of the fact that we have a living Savior up there today who’s for us. And there’s a reward for living the Christian life. But salvation is not a reward. It’s a free gift. You work for your reward, but not for salvation. That comes by faith. But the walk of the Christian is also by faith. And we are told that Enoch walked with God. And he was not because God took him. That means that we’re going to have to go back to Genesis and pick up the story of Enoch there. And I think that probably the only thing I’ll be able to mention is the chapter in which this is found. You take the fifth chapter of Genesis, and that’s where you find Enoch mentioned the first time. And it’s a very sad chapter. We’re told in Adam, all die. Well, it sure started out that way. We are told this is the book of the generations of Adam in the day that God created man and the likeness of God made him. That’s Genesis 5, 1. And then we’re told that Adam lived so long he begat a son. And here Seth is mentioned. We follow that line. And then Adam died. And then Seth, he lived and begat a son. And he died. All died. And Adam all died. And that’s the way it’s been going on now for a long, long time. But there’s one exception. And when you get to verse 21, you read, And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and he begat Methuselah. Well, we’re going to talk a little about Methuselah, his son, but we’re going to see Enoch next time. And in that, we’ll see the walk of faith. So until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, God does richly bless us when we walk by faith. And looking at what walking by faith really means is a great way to start the new year, isn’t it? Well, this weekend, Dr. McGee has more to teach us from Hebrews 11 in his message, This is the House that Faith Built. Join us by app online at ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you find a local radio station that carries the Sunday sermon. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll meet you back here next time as we continue to make our way through the Bible.
SPEAKER 03 :
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 02 :
Through the Bible exists to take God’s whole word to the whole world. And we invite you to stand with us with your faithful prayer and financial support. Where will God’s word go today?
